Atlas Soldier
by adwerte
Summary: Huntsmen sometimes join the army to become special operatives, but what if someone were to move the other way? This is a story of a soldier turned Huntsman in training.
1. Arrival at bootcamp

**AN: I do not own RWBY. Assume the same disclaimer for every chapter.**

 **EDIT [30-04-2016] More personality has been added to my OC.**

Atlas is at the top of the world when it comes to military, this is attributed to their presence on top of all things technology. However, what few realize is that the average solider is the cog that makes the Atlas machine run flawlessly.

My eyes flew open and the grey ceiling of the orphanage greeted its tenant. My blue colored eyes moved from the celling to the many hundred beds inhabited by the other children of the biggest orphanage in the kingdom of Atlas. Located in the center of Atlas city it drew poor and unfortunate souls seeking an education. It only demanded that the tenant when he/she came of age entered the Atlesian army. Now to some this was a curse, however to the ones who saw the military parades and saw heroes it was a promise of a great life to come.

I was one of these kids who came looking for a better life. At the age of 16, I was ready to move on to a new chapter in my life.

I moved down from my top bunk and examined my surroundings, in the bottom bunk my friend Copper slept, his red hair barely clearing the blanket. I slowly moved my way to the locker where I inside found my clothes. A black shirt, blue jeans and black socks, provided by the orphanage and laid off from the older children.

When I slipped my black shirt above my head, I heard a noise of something only considered half living. As I turned, I saw the zombie who had once been Copper slowly stumble out of his bed. I watched the comedic display of a half-asleep teen trying to wrangle himself out of his blanket.

"You need any help?" I asked with a smirk. The sleeping teenage zombie turned towards me and out of it a sound not far from a growl sounded.

"Yalgs"

"I take it that that means yes?"

Instead of saying anything, the zombie just wiggled and I walked up to him to untie his body from its pitiful prison. As the boy, I knew as Copper, emerged from his not so eternal slumber. He stared at me and said in a hushed voice. "How are you up this early?"

I threw his blanket onto his bed and made his bed according to regulations.

"It is an important day today. I wouldn't want to be late." I answered to my bemused friend.

Before he could answer he was interrupted by the cook of the orphanage entering the hall, he arrived exactly as the clocked ticked over to a new hour, a testament to the punctuality of the Atlesian military.

"Alright you rascals breakfast is in five minutes, if you are late you are on cleaning duty."

Copper took of immediately, running for the mess hall. Before he could leave the sleeping hall, I stopped him with a quick shout. "Copper! We have to be on our best behavior." He turned around grudgingly and waited for me to join him at the door. "It is initiation day! There will be officers from the army here." I said as I opened the door outwards to the main corridor. The sleeping halls of the orphanage had a simple layout. A Corridor ran down the middle between the two sleeping halls, one for the girls and one for the boys. The ends of the corridors had stairs down into the communal parts of the orphanage. The compact design was required in the city. The rest of the world was controlled by the Grimm and expansions where expensive, so land prices in the city were astronomical.

We went down the stairs to the mess hall. In front of the door, an officer of the Atlesian military reprimanded a pair of orphans. I smirked at their stupidity, disobeying rules on initiation day was a sure fire way to lose credit with the officers.

I pushed open the doors to the main hall, Copper followed behind me. The mess hall was a huge room with an arced roof. On the walls, there were heraldries of the main branches of military, the blue rifle of the infantry, the red saber of the marines, the yellow pistol of the military police, and lastly the wings of the navy. The hall was furnished with a raised podium in the end of the hall and four tables spanned the entire length of the hall. Windows substituted the chandeliers hanging from the roof with the light of the rising sun.

The door did not have time to close before the other children of the orphanage entered the mess hall. I grabbed a plate of gruel from the servers and took a seat close to the podium, Copper followed suit and sat down on the other side of the table. The room soon filled with the noisy chatter of children.

"You heard that the Schnee heiress has been accepted into Beacon academy?" Copper asked me starting up the conversation. Of course I knew, who had not heard that the heiress to the biggest company in Atlas had forsaken her homeland, and joined Beacon over Atlas academy? "I have heard. No wonder the White Fang is gaining ground when the top of our society slouches around at sup par academies." Before I could continue my tirade against the nobles of Atlas, I was stopped by the leader of the orphanage calling for our attention from the podium.

The leader was a skeletal man, his stature nothing compared to the gardener who in his free time taught wrestling to the interested, or the behemoth of a woman that took care of the basic education. However, he still filled the room with his commanding aura and voice.

"Children, Attention!" He started opening up for his speech. "Today our oldest generation will leave us. They are leaving for a new life filled with glory and honor." He turned and motioned an officer standing beside the scene forward. The officer wore a parade uniform, which was a long white overcoat with a grey west. His tie was colored yellow, connecting him to the military police. "This is Lieutenant General Baxter." The leader introduced the officer. "He is the commanding officer at your boot camp."

The General replaced the leader at the podium and pulled a scroll out of his inner pocket. "On this list I have the names of future soldiers of the kingdom." He said as he brought attention to the scroll. "Soldiers that will stand between the common folk and the chaos that lies outside as well as inside the cities. Soldiers that will ensure that no threat will come to the common folk whether it is from the Grimm or men like Roman Torchwick."

I felt pride fill my chest. Atlas would not back down against anyone, and I would be out there pushing the line against the tendrils of chaos. My time had arrived, and I would change to world as a part in the machine that was Atlas. Moreover, one day I would be the one at the wheel moving the world in a better direction.

"To join the defenders of the weak is: Azul Wolfgang, Burgundy Smiths…" Lieutenant General Baxter continued. He moved down the list of names. "Cobalt Early." As my names was called I got up from my bench. Copper followed shortly after and we made our way through the tables filled with children not yet of age. We exited the mess hall through a door behind the podium that lead directly outside where a bullhead was waiting to take us to boot camp.

The bullhead had seats down the length of it, and when we entered, we were directed to our seats by the same officer who had yelled at the orphans earlier. He, unlike the Lieutenant General, wore a fully plated combat uniform. Plating covered most of his upper body and the bottom of his legs, and below it, he wore the standard black combat suit. His face was covered by a full faced helmet, only revealing his mouth. Blue markings on his helmet and plating connected him to the infantry.

After a short while the Lieutenant General joined us. He immediately went to the front of the bullhead and began talking to the pilot. With a short grunt the blue marked officer called attention to himself. "I am Sergeant Romanoff, and I will be instructor in martial arts and your trainer." He stepped over to one of the handles hanging from the ceiling and ordered us to fasten our seatbelts.

The ride to the boot camp took the bullhead through the mountains. As we flew past the mountains bordering Atlas, I spied Atlas academy on the top of the highest mountain. It towered over Atlas city, and with its white exterior and glimmering towers, it displayed the importance of hunters in our society. What would my life have been like if I had not been an orphan? Could I have been sitting in a classroom at Atlas academy? I dwelled on the thought but I was interrupted by Copper. "A lien for your thoughts." He asked.

"I was thinking on what it would be like to be a huntsman." I answered. Copper leaned backwards into his restrains. "I don't think you would be a huntsman. No offence Cobalt, but hunters seem freer than you do. Not as bound by orders and rules you know?" I considered his words. Was I to bound by order? Could I achieve more if I followed in the freedom of the hunters? No matter, I was on my way into the army and not the huntsmen academy.

We landed on a pad elevated slightly above the base. The base was a collection of square white and grey buildings. A middle street ran unimpeded through the camp. The ends of this road had huge gates that went through the outer wall. Two buildings dominated the center of the encampment. Scattered around them in a rigid pattern were smaller building presumably the barracks.

Our group of recruits were delegated a barrack in the outskirts of the encampment. I entered and found sleeping arrangements not unlike that of the orphanage. The flight to the camp had taken most of the day, so we made ready for sleep. I went over to a locker in the back of the room here I deposited my clothes. The locker contained the standard equipment for a soldier. A black combat suits, plating, a helmet, a rifle, a sword and a pistol. I undressed down to my underwear and deposited my clothes in the locker. The coldness of the air beckoning me to find a comfortable bed to sleep in.

I grabbed a top bunk and directed Copper to the one below me. The blanket kept the cold air of the mountain base out, and I drew comfort in difference in temperature between my face and the rest of my body. "Good night." Copper murmured as I made myself comfortable. I returned his greeting, and descended into the sweet embrace of sleep. As the last slip of consciousness left me, I laid down my plan for tomorrow. I would push harder than I have ever done and improve myself to the best of my abilities.


	2. Bootcamp

**AN: 30-04-2016 Updated.**

"Get up maggots! I want you fully armored in 10."

Sergeant Romanoff's voice was not the one I wanted to hear early in the morning. I rolled over the edge of the bed. The pain I experienced as I hit the floor woke me up completely. From the window, I saw the light of the moon, it carried a message that my time at the camp might not be as I had predicted.

I got up from my position on the floor and kicked Copper awake. He let out a sound of protest and untangled from his blanket. I walked over to the lockers, and Copper followed me shortly after. I dragged on the black combat suit, and placed the grey plating on my shoulders. My plating was a little lose, so I asked Copper to tighten the straps. As I returned the favor, I noticed the other recruits struggling with their own armor. I pricked Copper on the shoulder and motioned outwards towards the struggling recruits.

"Okay listen up." He bellowed, as he had a stronger voice than I did. The other recruits turned towards us, and I took over. "Get up in groups of two and help each other put on your armor." They looked at me with a quizzical look, but followed suit as described to them how we had done it.

When I was sure that they had understood how it was done, I left the barracks and stood before Sergeant Romanoff. The moon bathed the sergeant in a ghostly glow.

As the last pair left the barracks, the Sergeant called for us to follow him. We followed the central road, also called cardo, out into the wilds. Here we made our way through the snow that covered the mountains, the plating dragged us into the snow, and when we finally arrived at an obstacle course the cold air had parched my throat.

He set us out on the obstacle course. I fought my way over walls, up monkey bars, down below a net, up a cliff side and down again into another net. After a couple of hours of repeating the obstacle course, I was famished. When the Sergeant called us together, I felt absolutely smashed. "I am impressed." Sergeant Romanoff said, addressing the whole group of recruits. "You guys are the first I haven't needed to give extra rounds because of tardiness in the morning." He turned around and faced back towards the camp. "Move out." He bellowed as he began running towards the camp. '

The run back to the camp was significantly easier since we had already threaded a path through the snow. When we arrived at the camp again, everything had sprung to life. Groups of recruits were clearing snow from the cardo while others were running laps around the camp. The Sergeant left us in front of the mess hall, leaving us for our morning meal.

The mess hall was an undecorated room with a counter in one end and filled with tables. Copper seemed exalted at the promise of food. "Finally something to eat! I'm starving!" He said as he grabbed a plate and filled it with everything that the canteen had to offer. I cracked a smile and joined him in his raid of the canteen. Before Copper could leave the counter, I called him over to the salad bar. "A balanced meal is important when one wants to build muscle." I preached while loading his plate with different greens.

"Why are you always so boring?" He asked as we sat down at one of the tables. "Oh because if you want to perform you need to do this and that." He said in a parody of me as he answered his own question. I continued tearing down my food as he monolouged.

The last piece of food left my plate, and with a small grin, I answered his tirade. "See you already know it, I don't need to say anything." He let out a sigh and finished his meal, which he flushed down with some water. The next stop on our schedule was close quarter combat. We left the mess hall and walked over to gym, which was located in the same central building. The gym was a big high lofted room with wooden flooring. The center was covered in green mats where on Sergeant Romanoff was waiting us together with an assistant. They were both wearing their black combat suits. Before we could enter, he ordered us over to the changing room where we stored our plating and our shoes.

Class started with sword practice. The first thing he taught us was a proper stance. The leading foot (Same side we held our sword in) forward and knees slightly bent. When we had all taken the stance, the assistant and he delivered an experimental shove to each of us. The ones who had not achieved the perfect stance were thrown to the floor.

Once everyone managed to remain standing, we moved on to basic strikes and blocks. The lesson dragged on, the Sergeant would show us a move and we would repeat it, every time someone faltered in repeating the Sergeant's strikes, he would be stopped by the assistant who would deliver some kind of punitive exercise. When you finished with whatever exercise the assistant had decided for you, he would show you the proper form.

After some time the Sergeant ordered us to place our swords in the changing room and get something to drink. I met up with Copper at the drinking fountain. "You have an incredible affinity for this, you moved like in a dance." I remarked. "The trick is to let the moves flow into one another." He answered as he finished his drink. "You save energy that way."

We returned to the gym. Next up was hand-to-hand combat. Again, like before, we started out with perfecting our stance. It was not much unlike the where we used a sword, so we quickly moved on to the strikes, kicks and blocks.

The class ended with a little show match between the Sergeant and his assistant. He ordered us to stand in a circle around them, our bodies creating an arena for their fight. They squared off in the center, and the sergeant began lecturing us,

"If you want to avoid someone's attacks, just keep an eye on their center of mass. If they want to put any force behind their attacks, they have to move it." He said as he avoided the first of the assistant's attacks. Without pausing he delivered a powerful retort against the assistant, his attack was deflected but the Sergeant continued onwards. "If you kick, do so without bringing yourself out of position, preferably by moving as little as possible." He continued as he delivered a kick to the side of the assistant. The assistant was unable to dodge and was staggered by the kick. The Sergeant stepped in and put the assistant in a lock. "When using locks, get it right the first time and do it quickly, and only use them if your objective is to restrain your opponent." He forced the assistant's surrender, ending the fight and with it the class.

The next point on our schedule was marksmanship, so after grabbing something to eat at the canteen we made our way to the gun range. Here an elderly marine, who was also in charge of the armory, taught us how to dismantle and then reassemble our rifles. Doing this was a daunting task. However, I could not imagine it even comparing to the rigors of cleaning a huntsmen weapon. While one could not deny their effectiveness, the moving parts of a huntsman weapon must make cleaning them a nightmare.

After the drilling in cleaning the rifles, the marine moved on to actually shooting it. With an intricate chart and an unloaded rifle, he showed us all the steps you had to do to successfully operate the workhorse that was the Atlesian rifle. What distinguished the Atlesian rifle from the hunter's weapons was that it, unlike theirs, was standard. It has to perform for every soldier in the army, in every location the army would find itself, therefore it boasted an extreme resistance to both heath and cold, a very easy field cleaning and fired bullets that cost nothing to produce. While I could not deny the skill it must take to design and use one of the huntsmen's weapon, there just was something unusually beautiful in standardized weaponry.

The lecture ended, and we moved on to actually shooting. I readied my rifle besides my teammates in the gun range. On the command of the marine, I fired at the targets arrayed in the back of the room. Our helmets blocked out the sound of the rifle to spare our ears, but the kick of the rifle sent an adrenaline surge through my body. Although my first shot missed by a mile I knew I was hooked. However, before I could chamber another round I was stopped by the old marine.

He drilled us on the optimal firing position. When he was satisfied with the way we were holding our guns, he allowed us to continue firing. I complied and fired. This time my bullets hit their target. Every shot sent tingles of excitement through my body. After a while, the marine stopped us. We delivered our spare bullets to him and took our rifles back with us to our barracks.

With that, our time in boot camp started. Morning exercises quickly built muscles to fill our armor. Focused either on building cohesion and discipline, or on increasing muscle mass. The increasingly hard morning exercises made soldiers from recruits.

The midday in the training hall gave order to our fights. When Sergeant Romanoff was satisfied with our skill, he began pitching us against each other in training fights. Copper jumped to the top of the ranking, while I just barely scraped into the top ten.

The afternoon in the shooting gallery gave accuracy to our shots. We moved from the still-standing targets form the first day, to moving targets. Here I outclassed everyone else. My accuracy rivaling even those of the marine in charge of teaching us the ropes.

The day arrived when we would be moved on to our respective positons in the Atlesian army. When we woke inside the barracks, we were greeted by a package inside our locker. Inside there was a letter and plating with the color of our future positon. I had unsurprisingly been given the positon of infantry. I looked up from my locker I saw Copper taking out his red marked plating affiliating him with the marines.

I put down my bag and moved over to Copper. "So this is it." He said as I helped him put on his new plating. "No this isn't it." I answered as he tightened the last strap and turned him around to face me. "We are going to meet up in the future, mark my words." Copper looked at me as if to something, but nothing ever left his mouth. He helped me put on my armor and before I could step out of the barracks onwards to my new destination he stopped me with a shout. "Cobalt! Don't get yourself killed out there." With a smile, I answered. "Same to you Copper."

With that, I left the barracks and searched for the bullhead to take me to my new post.


	3. Guard duty

I moved for the bullhead. As I closed in on the machine in noticed a regal looking lady, standing outside and slowly moving her cold gaze over the soldiers. Her blue eyes piercing trough the soldiers, as if to evaluate their soul. Her white special operative uniform matching her white hair.

"Soldiers! My name is Winter Schnee, and you may referee to me as special operative Schnee. I am your commanding officer for this assignment. You will be tasked with defending a military research center, what is being research is above your paygrade. You should only be concerned with guarding the compound."

When she finished speaking she opened the doors to the bullhead and goaded us inside.

When we landed at the research center I realized that this wasn't ordinary guard duty. A white building surrounded by several walls spotted with auto turrets and watchtowers. What surprised me the most was that I was not even allowed inside the innermost wall, and that the other soldiers and I were only there to guard the two exterior walls.

The endless fields of snow around the base gave little in the form of entertainment. Only adding the monotonous experience that was guard duty.

I moved down from my position in the watchtower, giving a nod to the soldier moving up to replace me. I moved over to the mess hall. As I entered the white building, matching the other buildings of the compound. I grabbed a meal and ate it while watching the television

"The yearly Vytal festival of the year is going to be held at Beacon academy; already top teams of the academies are preparing to face fierce competition present at this tournament."

Before the newscaster could finish his piece on the Vytal tournament, an explosion rocked the building. I grabbed my weapon and ran outside searching for the source. The first thing I noticed was that five bullheads descending down towards the compound. The second thing I noticed was the distinct lack of gunfire that would have usually ensued from the auto turrets when unidentified ships flew towards the base.

As I considered that, the explosion was just a mistake and the bullheads where part of the Atlesian military, the bullheads opened fire.

I ran for cover and tried to hail command.

"Anyone there?!" I yelled into my mic.

Nothing but static answered, and as I surveyed the battlefield I saw the base spring into action to repel the invaders. Some soldiers grabbed local control of the auto turrets, tearing into the attack force. I ran for the wall when I heard the tearing of machinery from inside the inner walls.

"Hey you two follow me" I yelled at two soldiers, that were making their way towards the walls. "They're attacking inside the walls, we need to get inside."

They decided to follow me and we made our way to the entrance to the main gate to the inner courtyard. The gate was open and we charged inside. Inside we found the bodies of children of different ages eviscerated. I walked closer with my rifle drawn, slowly closing in on the bodies. Unlike what I had been told of a battlefield, this did not have the smell of blood.

When I closed in on the body, I realized why I could not smell any blood. Instead of the organs, I saw a body made of wiring and other electrical components. Lying before me was a robot. The body was designed to look exactly like a human, a statement to capabilities of Atlas.

I was interrupted by a sound of someone yelling from the main building. The other soldiers and I ran for the entrance and saw Spec. Schnee fighting white fang goons and an officer of the Atlesian army. I opened fire into the back of the goons. The officer turned to asset the new threat, this proved to be his undoing as Spec. Schnee pierced his back with her rapier.

"Privates! Follow me, there are still enemies inside the building." She barked.

"Yes mam" We responded.

I checked the ammunition reserves and steeled myself for what we would find inside the lab. We moved inside and began exploring the facility for the intruders. The lab looked like a prison. Rooms with what looked like a charger fused with a bed, some had a miniscule of toys and other had a desktop scroll. All of them devoid of life after their tenant had rushed to the slaughterhouse outside.

We closed in on the center of the facility and began hearing the sound of a chainsaw tearing into the walls. Spec. Schnee signaled for us to move forward. I smashed open the door to the opened fire on the intruders. I caught a couple of the enemies in the back. Afterwards I jumped behind cover to assess the situation. Our enemy consisted of a couple of high-ranking white fang officers, and a young female that was dressed in clothes alternating between pink, white, and brown. Her hair matched this trio of colors, one part brown, while the other was pink with streaks of white.

My bullets did nothing more than annoy the officers who ran from their task in order to engage their opposition. As they meet on the halfway point, I realized that this would be a losing battle Spec. Schnee and the tricolored girl were evenly matched but since the officers manhandled the Atlesian soldiers I realized that it was my job to even the playing field.

I levelled my gun from behind the cover and opened fire. Every time an officer popped out from behind the soldier I placed a bullet in the exposed part. This, while not leaving any visible damage, hopefully damaged their aura. Before my barrage could continue for long, I was interrupted by the tricolored lady. She had jumped from her fight with Spec. Schnee in order to bring me out of the equation.

I pushed her attack away with my rifle and grabbed my sword with my right arm. She on the other hand used the momentum she had received form my push to do a flip deliver a kick towards my head. My helmet took the brunt of the kick, and I managed to get into positon before she could continue her assault. She continued her assault with a rapier she had pulled from the handle of her umbrella. I blocked her first couple of stabs, and with a quick movement of my left arm, and grabbed the pistol at my side. I fired a couple of shots into the girl, but they were easily blocked with her umbrella. Blocking the shots with her umbrella shortly blocked her view of me, and I sprinted to close the distance. When I arrived at her, we engaged in a deadly flourish of blows. While she was on the back foot after my aggressive move, she steadily gained the upper hand. However, before she could deliver the finishing blow Spec. Schnee smashed into her from the side. The girl recovered from the blow and assessed the situation. Seeing her two henchmen lying on the floor she disappeared into thin air.

"Impressive work Private Early." Spec. Schnee stated.

"Thank you ma'am." I answered as I grabbed my rifle.

"Private Wolfgang, get the auto-turrets up and running again, Private Reichmann guard the door, we don't want any surprises, and Private Early, follow me." Spec. Schnee ordered, and began moving for the door.

I walked up to the door to the main lab and readied myself for what we would find inside. Spec. Schnee typed a code on a terminal on the side of the door, and slowly the heavily reinforced steel door opened. Inside, instead of the cold lab I had expected, I found what amounted to a teenage bedroom, complete with posters, books, and a desktop scroll.

I moved my gaze around the room, looking for its tenant. As my eyes moved over the closet, I noticed a pair of green eyes staring out at me. Before I could act on my observation, Spec. Schnee strode to action.

"Miss Polendina show yourself." She barked.

Slowly a girl crawled out of the closet. She had short, orange, and curly hair and a freckled pale face.

"I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow, Miss Schnee." The girl said.

"There has been a rather unfortunate turn of events. I will consult with the general, Private Early guard Miss Polendina." Spec. Schnee ordered as she left the room.

After she left the room, Miss Polendina turned towards me with an inquisitive look.

"I haven't seen you before, are you new here?" She asked.

Unsure of how much I could tell her of the current situation I answered her question.

"I was on guard duty when the current situation arose"

"You're hiding the facts form me."

"Yeah but I'm not sure what I should tell you."

"Your discretion has been noted, however in this situation entirely unneeded." An authoritative voice sounded behind me.

I turned towards the voice and saw a man with grey streaked hair and a white overcoat. This, combined with the distinct strip of metal above his right eyebrow identified him as the highest-ranking officer in the Atlesian army: General James Ironwood.

I saluted him. "Sir."

"What is your name and ranking soldier?"

"Private Cobalt Early, Sir."

"I heard of your actions today, I'm impressed, from what I'm told your shooting skills are certainly out of the ordinary. You will accompany Miss Polendina to Atlas academy."

"Yes Sir" I saluted.

He turned for Miss Polendina.

"The base was attacked, to ensure your safety we will send you to atlas academy"

"What happened to the base personnel? Are they hurt?"

"There was an unfortunate loss of life; they knew what they signed up for."

"Okay" The girl muttered.

The general began leaving the room.

"Miss Polendina and Private Early, You will be traveling with me to atlas academy. Spec. Schnee and I will finish up here. I will meet you at the bullhead."

Miss Polendina and I walked towards the exit of the lab.

"Cobalt?" She asked as we left the earshot of the general.

"Yes Miss Polendina?"

"Please call me Penny. I was wondering…" Before she could ask the question, she was met with the sight of the eviscerated robots. She tensed up, moving closer to me as we crossed the courtyard, almost hugging me. I looked over the carnage; I realized that this must be a daunting experience for someone that hadn't realized that the bodies were robots.

"Don't worry; the bodies aren't of real people, robots, no need to be upset." I said as I moved over to one of the bodies. I grabbed a discarded arm and showed it to Penny. "See no blood, just machines."

"Yeah." She croaked and began walking for the exit out of the inner walls.

We entered the bullhead, and Penny seated beside me. An uncomfortable silence laid itself over us. Penny clearly still in a bad mood after seeing the bodies in the courtyard.

"Have you ever been to atlas academy?" I asked in an attempt to create a conversation.

"No." She said as she dismissed my inquiry.

Acknowledging that she did not want a conversation I leaned back and waited for us to land in Atlas.

Exiting the bullhead into Atlas academy, I saw the white towers up close. The architecture reminiscent of what was only found in ruins, told a story of an ancient academy. The entire academy consisted of five towers. One on the middle and the other four surrounding it. The outer towers held dorms and other student facilities, while the main tower had lecture halls and administration offices. Everything was connected by a myriad of bridges and encircled by a wall running between the four towers.

Before I could further analyze the academy exterior. Gen. Ironwood moved up beside me. "Private, follow me to debriefing. Miss Polendina, you wait here, a member of the faculty will come and shown you your room."

We entered the tower, and, after greeting the general's secretary, we took an elevator to the top of the tower. When we arrived at the top, we entered directly into an office. The office had Spartan furniture, with only a desk in the far end of the room. Gen. Ironwood walked up to the desk and pressed a button. Suddenly a screen moved down from the roof. The general then moved up to the screen as he fiddled with his scroll. A picture of Penny appeared on the screen. The picture became smaller, revealing a file containing information on the girl.

"First I have an offer for you. Based on your performance as a rifleman in your fight against the intruders, how would you like to compete become a part of Miss Polendina's support squad?" Gen. Ironwood asked me.

"Depends on what that entails, and first I want to know what you were doing to her at that facility."

"Of course. To answer your first question, you will be acting as a long-range combat component in a squad centered around Miss Polendina. Your squad will be going to the Vytal tournament to compete against the students of the other academies."

"Wouldn't it cause a fuzz when a soldier began competing against the students?"

"You will also, depending on your performance in the tournament, be permanently enrolled into the academy as a student."

"This seems a little rushed, considering I just this evening was battling white fang officers."

"Yes, but the white fang has forced our hand, we need to move Miss Polendina, and since we already had a plan in place, we decided to move it forward a couple of weeks. This has unfortunately left us with a lack of manpower."

"And I displayed just the right amount of skill at the right time…"

"So you get accepted for the job. Now do you accept your new mission?"

"You haven't answered my second question." I stated.

"I cannot disclose anything on Miss Polendina's situation, before you fully accept the mission."

I thought about the decision. If I really wanted to move up in the world, this was the way to go, but fast is also dangerous. Just the way I was promoted might put me in the searchlight of the white fang. Moreover, Penny, the girl in the metal vault, what kind of research what they doing to her? And what put her in the reticle of the white fang?

Valuing my options, I decided on my future.

"Yes, I want to be a part of this." I declared. My need for excitement and importance beating down my chances of a safe life.

"Good, exactly what I want to hear. Now to move onto Miss Polendina." He said as he brought up a blueprint. As I examined the blueprint, I realized it displayed Penny as a robot. I sat in stunned silence as the general continued speaking.

"Miss Polendina is an attempt by the Atlesian military to create a robotic hunter, so that we can finally replace humans on the frontlines completely. What you saw in the courtyard at the research compound were failed prototypes. Miss Polendina is the culmination of many years of research, and the mission you just accepted will be testing her."

"She doesn't seem like a robot." I added. Realizing my mistake in the courtyard, maybe she was offended by remarks of the bodies being just robots, that would explain the uncomfortable silence in the bullhead.

"That is an important part of her. Her AI makes her capable of generating an aura and makes her much faster in combat situations than the standard Atlesian knight."

"Thank you for this information Sir, on the topic of aura, shouldn't I have mine unlocked? If I am going to compete against hunters I will need it."

"We'll do that tomorrow, now run along for your dorm; it's In the top of the north tower, room number 201"

I saluted the general and turned to leave the room.

"Oh, Penny is rather quirky; please be patient with her."

Considering his last words, I traveled to the north tower. I knocked on the door.

"Come in" It sounded from the door. I opened the door and inside I found the quirky girl, sitting in her bed feet crossed and an arm detached and lying in her lap. Penny was sitting with a brush and was cleaning her arm for any marks. While doing so she was wearing a pajama with a grey top and neon green pants. She looked up at me, but before she could utter a single sound, I started our conversation.

"I know we started off on the wrong foot, and I am partly to blame for this. Ironwood told me of you, and I hope that you will forgive me for my insensitive remarks. Apparently not all robots are unthinking."

Penny looked stunned and I continued with my apology.

"From now on, we are teammates, and therefore I wish to start over."

I brought my hand forward as if to shake her hand.

"Hello, my name is Cobalt Early, may I ask yours?"

The stunned look quickly turned into a gleeful expression.

"Salutations!" Penny erupted. "My name is Penny Polendina, will you be my friend?"

"Yes indeed."

"Sen-sational! We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys…Or is that only something you do with female friends?"

"I'll go along with everything, except the painting of nails. Just so you know, I don't have much hands on experience with trying on clothes. And I like women not men so my meaning of them might not be the same as another girl."

"Yayy!" She exclaimed and attacked me with a one armed hug.

I untangled myself from the metal girl, and began looking over the dorm. White walls, grey floors, and the only décor being furniture being two closets and two bunkbeds. To me the Spartan room was homely.

"We need to decorate!" Penny announced.

"Wait, what?" I answered.

"We need to decorate! Our dorm room should be more personal than this. Oh, I want a poster of a famous huntress, and my books from the lab. We this will be so much fun!"

"Before you get too excited, we need to go to bed. I have an important assignment tomorrow. We can go for the decorating tomorrow afternoon."

"What are you doing tomorrow morning?"

"I am having my aura unlocked."

"Wait, you don't have an aura? I thought every living being had an aura."

"I have an aura; I just haven't had it unlocked yet."

I moved over to one of the bunkbeds. "I'll grab the top one here." I said as I began undressing. My plating slamming against the floor as I opened the straps. My battle suit was the next thing to go. The black suit sliding of my body. Some soldiers preferred to go commando in the suits, I however preferred to wear undergarments. Now only wearing my undergarments, I stretched displaying my muscular body to for the world to see. I jumped up to my bed and snuggled below my blanket.

"You did that on purpose." A burning red Penny stammered from her bed.

I turned towards her. "Maybe, but you can't prove it."

She glared at me, and laid down to sleep. I turned back over towards the wall, and fell into a dreamless sleep.


	4. Atlas Academy

I woke up and immediately noticed the eerie silence dominating the room. This was a stark contrast to the activity of the barracks. I sat up in the bed and looked at Penny nested in her bed. She was still fast at sleep. I silently lowered myself out of the bed, and put on my battle suit. I walked slowly through the still sleeping school, towards the gym.

The gym consisted of many smaller rooms allowing for personal practice against training dummies, and a huge room reserved for exercise in general. The small rooms had green mats covering the floor and mirrors all along the sides that allowed the user to easily observe their form. The big room had was more focused on the strength of the huntsman. Treadmills, weights and other pieces of training equipment lined the sides of the room, and in the center, there was a sparing ring. The ring took up almost the entire training area, and had markings that showed how it could be divided up into smaller arenas for one on one fights.

Here I began doing exhausting exercises drilled into every recruit at boot camp. After about an hour students of the academy began to enter the gym. I examined the students. Most were wearing the standard atlas grey and white uniform, while others were wearing more personalized equipment. Some began sparing against the dummies, something I had to forego considering my lack of aura, and others began using the different training equipment scattered around the hall.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard the voice of Spec. Schnee behind me.

"Private Early." I turned around to face the Spec, giving her quick salute. "General Ironwood request your presence in the arena." She motioned me to follow her out of the gym, and we quickly made our way to the arena. The arena was a dark room arranged like an amphitheater, with seating in one side of the room. In the center, there was a slightly raised round mat and on top of this mat. The general was in the middle of the arena and wore a black tank top, which revealed his extensive cybernetics replacing his entire right side. He invited me up on the mat with a nod.

"We will now unlock your aura, are you ready?" He said, I steeled myself for what was about to happen "Yes sir." I answered. The general placed his balled fist on my chest and began chanting.

"We have been tasked with defending the common folk. To this cause, we sacrifice everything. Stopping at nothing, and unbound by doubt. I release your soul, and by my shoulder you will stand."

As he spoke, a heat exited his hand and enveloped my body. When he finished he removed his hand and the heat began changing, now instead of heat, everything just felt right. Energy coursed through my veins as my body readied itself for the onslaught that terrorized the path of the huntsman.

"It seems like I was successful." Ironwood observed. "I must admit, I had expected something more extravagant." I saluted the general. "I will not disappoint Atlas." I said and left for my room, every single movement bringing focus on the new power I possessed.

Penny was energetic when I entered our room. She was wearing her unusual outfit, and was readying her weapon for combat class. Her weapon was blades connected to a backpack by a thin metal wire. The swords were spread out on the bed and she was cleaning each of the blades individually. I began putting on my plating, when I had fastened the more accessible straps, I asked Penny for the ones on my back.

She folded up her swords into her backpack and moved over to help me put on my armor. "Isn't it hard to move around in this armor?" She asked as she tighten the straps on my back. "It is not only an armor; it has everything a soldier would need. Mechanized joints to add power to your strikes, recoil absorbance, and a number of applications to increase awareness in battle." I answered.

"Almost all things that could be done lighter or substituted by aura." She answered as the tightened the last strap. "I will consider it when every hunter in the world gets a buzz cut." I shot back. "Or maybe every hunter should stop wearing high heels."

"I don't wear high heels." She retorted. "And it has been proven that the individuality of the hunters adds to the public morale." I turned towards her, but she dismissed my next words. "Let's just get to class! We don't want to be late on our first day here!"

I grabbed my helmet and we left our room for the arena. Instead of the empty room that was the arena when I had my aura was activated we found the other students slowly filling the amphitheater. Penny and I found spots in the front of the theater and patiently waited for the teacher.

The teacher walked in, drawing the attention of the class. "Class, you know the drill, I choose one of you, and you choose an opponent from the amphitheater." He said as he stepped up on the arena."Up today is Neon Katt, get up here and choose your opponent." He continued.

From the back a female cat faunus sprung up and moved for the center of the arena. She was wearing a tank top and a miniskirt. Her orange hair matched the bright colors of her clothes, and she moved into the center of the arena on roller skates.

After a brief consideration, she pointed at me. "You there, new guy, are you up for a fight?" I got up from my seat. "Yes I am Miss Katt." I said as I readied my rifle. "Ohh formal, that won't give you any points in my book." She taunted back, trying to get on my bad side.

The light around the ring was dimmed; this made the ring seem like its own island in an ocean of darkness. The serenity of the moment was broken when Miss Katt charged me. I blocked her attack and when she zoomed past me and I followed her movement with my rifle. Gauging her moment, I opened fire into the blur of colors that was the faunus.

My bullets found their mark, but unlike a normal human, she continued only slightly bothered by the shoots.

"I wonder how much iron wood you had to deal with to come here." She taunted.

She built up enough speed and attacked me again. I redirected her attack but before I could shoot her, I felt her nunchakus impact the back of my armor. This evolved into a torrent of strikes hitting me all over my body.

The torrent stopped, and I saw Miss Katt skate around me in slow circles.

"It at least seems like you're used to a pounding" She taunted.

I glanced at the screen depicting our aura, and I saw mine halfway full, and her only down by a quarter. I aimed my rifle at her and she sprang into action. Her nunchaku was glowing, and she skated in to hit me once again. Instead of blocking, I placed a shot in her leg as she skated past me. I still received a hit with the nunchaku that froze my leg to the ground, but my gamble returned profit as she stumbled.

"A little pussy is about to receive a pounding." I returned as I leveled my rifle in her direction.

I emptied my rifle into her, every shot bringing her aura down. Before I could bring her aura down low enough for me to win she recovered and returned to her extreme speeds. Realizing that I couldn't take to many hits from the faunus, I threw away my rifle and drew my sword, reading to face her in a melee.

I managed to block some of her attacks, but I still lost to the speedy faunus. The teacher stepped in when my aura dropped below the minimum limit.

"Great fight! Neon, you need to be quicker on the recovery, and try to lay off the insults. Cobalt, you need to move more, you won't survive taking a direct hit from a death stalker or a hunter bearing a heavy hitting weapon."

"Yes, Sir" I saluted the teacher and moved for my spot in the amphitheater.

The class continued every person in the class fought at least once. Penny easily defeated her opponent with an impressive display of her blades. At the end of the class, Penny and I gathered outside the classroom.

"What is next on the schedule" I asked her.

"Nothing right now, we have a lecture in the evening. Therefore, I thought that we should go down to the city and by some clothes for you and some décor for our room!" She answered.

"I have some capital from my time in the army, but I do not want to use it unless it's vitally important."

"Money won't be a problem." Spec. Schnee interjected as she walked towards us. She was holding two envelopes, which she handed to us. "Your monthly pay. Since both of you indirectly work for the army, we decided that you should receive a salary."

"Yay! Shopping time!" Penny exclaimed and began dragging me towards the transport to the city.

"Not so fast Miss Polendina, we have some things to discuss with the two of you. If you would follow me." Spec. Schnee ordered.

Together with Spec Schnee, we entered Ironwoods office. The general was standing behind his table.

"Miss Polendina, Private Early. Impressive performance at the arena today, but for your competition at the Vytal tournament you will need two extra teammates." He stated.

He walked up to the already revealed screen.

"We have already decided on one member for your group, her name is Ciel Soleil you may have noticed her in your combat class. She has an exceptional control over dust, but because of an odd number of students and her severe lack of social skill she hasn't gotten a team."

A picture of the girl appeared on the screen she wore a blue berretta and matching skirt, everything tied together with a white shirt and black gloves going up to her elbows. Her skin was brown and hair black. On her forehead, you noticed a golden tattoo.

"As for close quart fighter we haven't decided, every acceptable one on the academy already has a team."

"Sir if I can suggest someone?" I inquired.

"Yes go ahead."

"One of my fellow trainees was an absolutely monstrous sword fighter. His name is Copper Schizes, and he is in the marines right now."

General Ironwood brought up his file on the screen.

"I see no problem in Spec. Schnee evaluating him. He will be brought in tomorrow for evaluation. Now to move on to something else, Private Early, you had your first true huntsman fight today do you have an idea for your weapon?"

"Why can't I use my weapons from the army, they're perfectly fine."

"I watched your fight; you would have had a much easier time if you had pulled your sword earlier. However, pulling your sword would have forced you to discard your rifle. Moreover, creating a rifle sword hybrid is not difficult thing; you should have seen one huntsman I know. He has a great sword scythe hybrid, absolutely ludicrous!"

"Yeah and a changing weapon is so cool, you would look like a real huntsman!" Penny exclaimed.

"Any specific instruction I should send to my designers?" Ironwood asked.

"The most important part is the rifle, the sword is secondary. And, if the rifle part could be designed in the same way as my current rifle, I am quite a big fan of the versatile use of my current rifle."

"I will tell them."

"Is that all sir?" I asked.

"Not entirely, I have decided that you will be the team leader private Early, and you have therefore been promoted to the rank of corporal."

"Thank you sir, I won't disappoint" I saluted him and so Penny and I left.

Penny was extremely exited that I got promotion, and decided we should celebrate by grabbing some cake in the cafeteria. She decided we should have chocolate cake, and after buying the cake, we returned to our room. We entered the room and inside Ciel Soleil was unpacking her bags, while humming a tune-

"Hello Miss Soleil." I said. My words startled the blue clad student and she turned towards me.

"Corporal Early." She said as she saluted me.

"Just call me Cobalt."

"Yes Sir. You may call me Ciel."

Penny placed the cake on the desk, and moved up to the black haired girl.

"Salutations friend, my name is Penny!" Penny exclaimed, moving over to Ciel.

"Hello ma'am. You may call me Ciel." Ciel answered still standing in her salute.

Penny, not faced by the stoic appearance of Ciel, continued her introduction. "I saw how you cast lightning all over the place, is that your semblance? Why do you not also use a weapon?" Ciel answered immediately "I can obtain a bigger range when using both arms." Avoiding the question on where her powers originated,

We shared the cake, and after a while, Ciel reminded us that we had to get to class.

The class was on the faunus revolution, I struggled staying awake as I had never had to sit through an entire lecture. Penny stayed strong, paying attention to every word the teacher said, and always ready to answer questions the teacher asked. Ciel looked bored, not that she did not pay attention, and she just looked entirely disinterested in what the teacher had to say.

When the class finally finished we retired to our room, I was completely exhausted after our classes. Instead of using too much time conserving with Penny, I threw of my armor, exited for the sweet embrace my bed.


	5. CCCP

**AN: This chapter would have been a little short if I had ended after one day, so it will have two days. Please favorite, follow and review.**

After our morning classes we moved to the arena to witness Copper's evaluation. We found sitting spots in the amphitheater, Ironwood joined us and after a little while, Copper and Spec. Schnee walked into the arena.

Copper wore armor befitting of his position in the marines, the red markings matching his hair. Him and Spec. Schnee walked up to the center of the stage. He noticed me sitting in the spectator seats, and was clearly bemused by my appearance.

"You will now fight Spec. Schnee. She will fight without using her semblance, and you will only be evaluated on your skills, so you do not need to win the fight." Ironwood stated. "You also do not need to hold back, Spec. Schnee will use her aura."

Spec. Schnee and Copper moved to their respective sides of the arena. Copper drew his sword in his left hand and his pistol in his right hand. Spec. Schnee drew her rapier and her parrying knife.

Ironwood signaled the battle to commence, and Copper immediately opened fire on the Spec. Spec. Schnee charged Copper and blocked his shots with her rapier. Copper realizing that his pistol was ineffective, changed positon to favor his left side, and therefore his sword.

They closed in for the sword fight. Copper started out on the defensive as he blocked the attacks made by the Spec. however, he quickly went on the offensive with his pistol, stringing in a shot at the Spec every time an opening arose.

The Atlesian pistol, while great for the common soldier was not magical, and Copper ran out of bullets before he could make a major indent in the aura of Spec. Schnee. He discarded his pistol and began going all out with his sword. The flurry of strikes that followed was impossible to follow. Copper started out on the advantage, but as the cuts and bruises began building up the clear advantage of Spec. Schnee's aura showed. While Copper tired out, Spec. Schnee aura kept her fresh. General Ironwood also noticed the change of pace and stopped the fight.

"I have seen enough, Private Schizes you have impressed me." He said as he stood up from his position in the amphitheater. "Get yourself cleaned up and come join me in my office." Ciel and Penny joined the general as he left for his office. Copper left the arena and moved for a doctor situated at the entrance of the classroom. The doctor had arrived ready for more grievous wounds, and was maybe a little disappointed that he could not use some of his more advanced tools.

Copper stripped his upper body, and sat on the operating table brought in by the doctor, letting the black fabric of his suit hang down the sides. The doctor began dressing his wound. I joined Copper from my spot in the amphitheater. "This is your doing isn't it?" He asked me. "Do you know how much trouble I thought I was in when I was picked up by that tight cunt Schnee?" I sat down before him, considering his words.

"Hey, respect your superior officers." I answered.

"You, I could accept as an officer." Copper said as he jumped down from the operating table. "You have proven yourself, but some dirt bags deserve nothing more than a foot up their asses." He put on his uniform.

"Sounds like you have a story to share." I said as I moved towards the door.

Copper ran up beside me. "Yes I do, but not now."

We left for General Ironwood's office, inside we found Penny excitedly waiting for her new teammate. Ciel on the other hand, stood as stoic as usual. General Ironwood greeted Copper.

"Welcome Private Schizes, based on your performance against Spec. Schnee and a recommendation by your peers, you have been added to this squad of students. Based on your future performance, you could be on track for a future as a huntsman."

"Sir, what exactly am I going to be doing?"

"You will first and foremost travel to Vale to compete in the Vytal tournament." General Ironwood stated as various mission details appeared on the big screen in his office. "Do you accept this mission?"

"Who is my commanding officer?"

"Your commanding officer is Cpl. Early." Ironwood answered and motioned in my direction.

"Okay, I'm in" Copper immediately answered.

"Good now you are now team CCCP. Cobalt Ceil Copper and Penny." Ironwood declared addressing all of us.

"Moving on, we will now activate Coppers aura." General Ironwood continued. After retracting the screen, General Ironwood stood in the middle of the office, just in front of Copper. As he had done with me, he placed his left fist on Copper's chest.

"We have been tasked with defending the common folk. To this cause, we sacrifice everything…"

Before General Ironwood could finish his chant, things exploded. Out from where Ironwood and Copper were standing a flame covered the room. I was knocked into the wall, but thanks to my aura, I quickly regained my bearings. Now in the center of the room Copper was lying down, all of his clothes were burned off. Red marking slowly making their way over his body, swirling and growing out from his heart. General Ironwood had also been blown back and the fire had burned of the clothes covering his metal parts.

Ciel reacted immediately, sending out lighting at Copper who tumbled sideways to avoid the bolt. Ciel walked up to him, glowing with power. She placed a hand on his forehead. "Any last words?"

"Ciel, Stop it." I ordered before she could unload a torrent of electricity to fry Coppers brain. "What are you doing?" I continued.

"He has infused his body with fire dust, Sir. Better to put him out of his misery now, than wait for him to slowly disintegrate or in the worst case blow up and take us with him." She said as she forced Copper into a kneeling position.

Ironwood stood up, and moved over besides Ciel. "Let us give Copper a chance to explain himself."

Copper stared defiantly into the eyes of the general. "That was the effects of an incompetent officer."

"Please elaborate." General Ironwood demanded.

"My squad leader in the marines was a dirty motherfucking drug dealer, the first thing he did to my squad mates and I was to get us hooked on his favorite past time. Afterwards it suddenly became expensive to have fun." Copper lamented. "Highest fucking purity of burn dust, and telling on him was out of the question."

Ironwood considered his words, but before he could utter his decision, I broke in. "Ciel how did you know that it was dust infusion?" Ciel looked up at me, sporting her ever-controlled expression. "My family's specialty is to infuse dust into our bodies, Sir, if one does not sport the utmost control over one self, one will not be able to survive long as an infused."

"Copper do you believe that you are capable of exerting this control?" I asked the kneeling soldier. He looked up at me with doubt in his eyes. I looked down directly into his eyes. "I have seen you handle a sword, there you have complete control, and I believe you will be able to do this." I answered his pleading eyes.

A humorous glint played over his eyes, "Just tell me when to block and when to strike and I won't disappoint you sir."

General Ironwood observed our conversation and I turned to him. "No don't look at me, it seems like you have this completely under control." He answered, and I turned back towards my squad.

"Ciel, I want you to teach Copper how control his newfound powers, and Copper, she is your new teacher, do exactly as she says. If you do not do as she says, I will make Sergeant Romanoff seem like your nice and mellow grandma."

The general motioned us to leave, but instead of leaving, I asked. "If I may have a word general." The other turned around, surprised at the change of plans. "Alone." I added.

The others left and general Ironwood and I were left alone. "Why not tell Ciel and Copper about Penny, Sir?"

The general looked at me, placing his hands behind his back. "Some things need to be classified, I trust you to tell them when it becomes necessary, and not a second before." He turned away from me and looked out the window. "She is valuable, and might sprout some controversy if the general public learned of her. Fewer people to know about her, fewer loose ends."

I saluted the general. "I understand Sir. I will now join my team."

My team and I retired to our dorm after the hectic experience in General Ironwood's office. Copper had borrowed an Atlas uniform since his clothes had been incinerated.

On our way Ciel and I discussed the next class, Ciel pointed out that we had already missed it by 34 minutes and 56 seconds so we might as well miss it. Penny exited because she had just joined a full huntsman team, inquired Copper about his what he would like to do in his free time.

We entered our room and Copper quickly changed into his one of his spare uniforms. Ciel immediately claimed him, and asked him to sit down in front of her. "You have been put into a rather unfortunate set of circumstances." She opened the conversation. "The training I received was rigorous to say the least. Are you ready?" Copper straightened his back. "Yes, ma'am." "Right now your aura is activating the dust inside your body which will kill you if it continues." She opened his uniform, revealing the glowing scars traversing his body. She began to trail her finger down the scars. "You need to make your aura inert and stop it from reacting with the dust in your body." She removed her hands from his chest. "Imagine that you are on fire, every single part of your body is engulfed in flames. Now begin restricting the flame, first stop the fire in the corners of your body, then move slowly inwards putting out the fire as you go."

I observed the proceeding, as time passed in silence, the orange scars on Coppers body began dimming, showing the effects of the meditation. Ciel continued with her lecture. "Now lift your hands up in front of you, imagine them bursting into a brilliant flame." His hands burst into flames and I jumped backwards as heat flew out from them. "You are doing remarkably well." Ciel said. Copper opened his eyes, but before he could respond his entire body burst into flames. "Maybe I spoke to soon." Ciel said. The fire on Copper began burning the floor. Ciel ordered him to go through the exercises again, and as before the flames on his body died down. The rest of the day was used on Ciel slowly putting Copper through igniting every part of his body in sequence, every time he lost concentration and burst into flames, Ciel had him start over.

Night came closer, and Copper finally managed to complete the sequence. Ciel finished of the exercise. "Using infused dust is a lot like alcohol, if you drink all the time, you will get liver damage and die. But if you space out the usage and use it in moderation, you will avoid most side effects." She got up from the floor and stretched. "Ingesting dust to receive a short boost in combat capabilities is ill advised, and will leave you with pain all over your body."

"So like a hangover." Copper commented as he got up from the floor.

"Yes, I suppose it is." Ciel answered. Copper thanked Ciel for her help and left the room to enjoy a long shower. Ciel got up from her position on the floor and climbed up on the top bunk above Penny. Penny was reading on her scroll, enjoying a news article on the other schools in Remnant. I got out of my clothes and jumped up into my bed, slowly letting my mind descend into a deep sleep.

The light from the window heralded the coming morning, and with it a buzzing of activity in the now filled dorm room. Penny was the first out of bed, she quickly grabbed a change of clothes from her closet and moved into the bathroom. I dropped out of my bunk, and moved up to the bathroom door. "Wait with the shower for later, I want to get some team practice in first." I heard a short burst of affirmation from inside the bathroom. Ciel moved to her closet still wearing her nightclothes, consisting of a white tank top and black pants, grabbing clothes for the day to come. She knocked on the door to bathroom, seeking entrance to change clothes, when she had left; Copper and I immediately stripped and put on some clean underwear. Afterwards we put on our combat suits, and as we began putting on our plating, Penny and Ciel exited the bathroom.

"You won't need the plating Copper, even if you didn't have your aura, you would be still be fighting from the back line." Ciel said. "You won't be able to hold concentration in the front line."

I tightened the last strap on Copper's plating. Released from me Copper stepped up to Ciel. "Corporal Early, why am I in this group?" He asked me still looking at Ciel. "Because of your skill with a sword." I answered. Copper moved past Ciel, still wearing his armor. "Our powers may come from the same place, but my skills and my position in the group is different from yours." He answered Ciel. "I need the armor, so that you don't."

We made our way to the gym where we reserved one of the smaller rooms. I gathered my team around me. "We need some basic structure for our fights." I said. "We have Copper in the frontline, and Ciel and me in the backline. Penny is a mid-range fighter, she can be both in the front lane and in the back line. This means that in a usual fight, Copper will dash forward to fight the enemy head on. Penny will stay a couple of paces behind Copper supporting him. Ciel and I will stay entirely in the back and support both of you. If the enemy manages to get around Copper and Penny, I will face them with my sword." Before we could get in some real practice, Neon Katt burst into the room followed by her teammate Flynt Coal.

"What do we have here? Is this Ironwood's harem?" She taunted as she danced around the room on her rollerblades. "Why are you here?" I opened up. "If it to nothing more than be a pest, you have succeeded quite masterfully." "I just came to check up my favorite soldier." She answered as she skated up to me. I stopped her before she hit me with a stretched hand. "What about a sparring match, two from my team against you two?" I said. "Okay, who are we fighting?" She asked. "Copper and Ciel. I said, and motioned to towards the two infused. Neon skated up to Flynt to discuss my proposition. I on the other hand, moved over to my teammates. "What are you thinking? Copper isn't ready to use his powers in a real fight." Ciel protested. "Call it a trial by fire." I answered. "Now Ciel, how can Copper throw his fire like your throw your lightning?" "Same way he does it when he ignites his body, he wills his flames forward in the direction he wants to throw them."

Neon skated towards us, announcing that they were ready for the fight. The combatants readied up in different sides of the room, and I signaled the start of the fight with my rifle.

Copper immediately dashed forward, intent on closing the distance with the two huntsmen in training. Neon also skated forward, meeting copper on the halfway. The fighting started, and the extreme skill of Copper in a swordfight became apparent, every attack of the barrage that had dismantled me blocked with ease and answered with a torrent of fire spouting from his off hand. While the two close quarters fought, Ciel engaged Flynt from the other side of the arena. The lightning infused sent bolt after bolt into the trumpet player. Flynt began running for the center of the arena, narrowly avoiding the bolts flying towards him.

"Ciel, don't leave Copper in a two vs one." I ordered, and Ciel immediately ran forward. The fight turned into a two on two close quarters fight. Copper fought to keep himself between Neon and Ciel, while Ciel sent out bolts, that only narrowly avoided Copper, at the cat faunus. Flynt used his trumpet to dispel the fires of Copper. The fight ended as Ciel landed a clean shot on Flynt, immediately prompting Copper to dash in and finish him off with a fiery fist. Neon tried to put Ciel out of the battle, Ciel was ready for this and as the speedy faunus closed, she was hit by torrent of lightning forcing her out of the fight.

"Great job you two." I said to my two infused fighters. "You guys are ready for the Vytal tournament. Now get yourself cleaned up, and let's get something to eat."

With that our time at the academy started. Every morning I ordered the squad down into the gym where we, under my guidance, practiced team cohesion and followed a training regime not unlike what Copper and I had been put through in the army. In the middle of the day, we usually had theory classes and when we did not Ciel tutored Copper and I to get us up to the same theoretical as the other hunters in training. The evenings were used for our personal time, usually spent on videogames, but sometimes I would call the team together to discuss tactics and ways to improve our fights.

Then the Vytal tournament arrived.


	6. Vale

"Morning mates, time to get up." I said as I roused my team for the day. We had already packed, but we still had to get up early since we had been summoned to general Ironwood's office together with the other teams going to the Vytal tournament. We took our bags and left for the office.

"I am so excited to go to Vale." Penny said as we made our way to the office. "We really need to go shopping for clothes; we can't have two on our team wearing standard military uniform."

"What is the problem with the uniform?" Copper retorted.

"I just think it's boring that we are always wearing the same clothes, and we have been doing nothing but training, can't we someday do something different?" I considered her words, were we working too hard? A little relaxation would be good for the team. "Yeah, we can go shopping when we arrive at Vale." I said. "It is after all also a festival."

We entered the office; here we found the general standing over a crate. "Ah, Team CCCP, welcome, I have a package for Corporal Early." He said as he took out a beautiful sword. Ironwood held the blade at the hilt, and pressed a button. The sword split in half, the forward part flipping over to the back, and afterwards extending forward revealing a barrel. The part of the blade still on the bottom of the rifle disengaged and stowed itself under the extended top. The blades created a rail for attaching add-ons, and in the stowed state revealed a trigger and a magazine. The handle for the sword extended into a stock. All of the moving parts were blue matching my eyes, the fixed parts were black, and the blade itself was the color of steel.

"What a new weapon? Why do I not get a new weapon?" Copper protested, moving up to general Ironwood.

"If you have a suggestion to something that will improve your performance, I would love to take it to my designers." Ironwood answered. Ironwood handed Copper the rifle/sword hybrid. Copper retracted the weapon into a sword, and returned to me.

"Your sword, Sir." He said as he knelt before me. I grabbed the sword, tested the weight and holstered it at my side. "This is a good weapon, general; please send my regards to the designer." I said. My team and I arrayed in the office and shortly after the other teams from Atlas joined us.

General Ironwood began speaking. "You are the top of Atlas academy, and at the Vytal tournament you will prove yourself as the top of the world. Every single one of you have trained for this moment since you entered the academy, and I have no doubt, that you will go far in the tournament. However, you need to know that the teams of the other academies are just as set on being champions as you, do not underestimate your opponents. If anything you should respect your opponents, and then show them why Atlas is the kingdom they should respect."

The speech ended, and my team and I saluted the general in perfect unison, displaying the discipline I had drilled into them. We left ironwood's office for the helipad to travel to Vale. Instead of traveling with the usual bullhead, we traveled with an airship. The airship was slower than a bullhead, but had higher capacity and was more luxurious. We sat in the lower gallery watching the landscape slowly glide past us.

"So what are you going to call it?" Penny asked as she tried out the rifle, changing between the different orientations.

"I do not know." I answered and took it out of her hands. "I want to try it out before I make any decisions." I tried to imagine a name for the blue weapon as Penny turned on her scroll and begun to search for shops to visit while in Vale.

"We should visit this store." She said as she pointed to a name on her screen. I looked over her should and she continued. "Delivering the best armor and clothing for the aspiring hunter. This sounds like the place we need."

The ship flew over Vale to land at beacon academy. I looked down on Vale city, the city was clearly divided up into 3 parts by rivers flowing through the city. The industry was located on the southwest, clearly shown by the farms and the factories dotting the area. The rest of the city was residential. The airship flew eastwards, towards beacon academy. We landed on helipads overlooking a cliff. Exiting the ship, we were greeted by the grand Beacon academy. Beacon academy looked ancient compared to Atlas, every single building looking like taken directly out of a fairytale. The campus consisted of numerus towers looking more like palaces than school building clearly every single one a feat of architecture on itself. Paths, moving through green parks and fountains decorated with famous hunters, connected everything. The central tower stood high above all, glowing like a beacon fitting to its name.

We stored our baggage at our room at beacon and immediately left for the city. The airbus down to the city was filled with students, all exited to participate in the festivities in the city. Copper, Ciel and I rushed towards the shop staked out by Penny. "Hey guys, wait up!" Penny yelled. "Can't we browse a little; I want to take a look at the shops."

"Wasn't the goal to buy new clothes?" I asked.

"Yes, but every time they go shopping in the movies they browse all of the stores." Penny answered and motioned around her.

"We should get clothes for the party out of the way first, and then we can begin browsing." I answered. Penny agreed meekly.

The shop was located close to the docks. There was an extreme selection, everything charted at what a huntsman would need. Copper and I both bought a suit for the dance party. His had red markings on his shoulders, matching the markings of fire dust on his body. To wear below the suit he bought a white shirt and red tie. I had a lot harder time choosing my suit. I finally settled on a neutral black suit, complete with a blue tie and a white shirt. Ciel bought a black dress with markings that, just like Copper's, matched her dust markings. She also bought a pair of high-heeled shoes the same black color as her dress. Penny went for a grey dress and grey high heels. "I'll wait outside." Penny exclaimed while we were still making decisions on our clothes. We finished and joined Penny on the street.

Penny was talking with a couple of girls. "Hey, Penny, ready to get a move on?" I asked.

"Not now Sir, these girls said they were my friends." I observed the girls. They were all armed and looked like huntsmen in training. The first one, the one Penny was closest too wore a red cape and a black combat skirt with red frills. Besides her there was a white haired girl wearing a white dress and white leather boots, her demeanor bore a striking resemblance to Spec. Schnee. Besides her there was a black clad girl, she wore a black bow and her eyes seemed almost cat like in appearance. Lastly, there was the busty blonde, she wore a brown jacket and a pair of black shorts.

"I hope Penny wasn't too intrusive." I said as I we closed on the group. "No not at all Sir." The little red girl answered, clearly to the dismay of her other team members. I reached out my hand. "Cobalt Early, leader of team CCCP." I said. "The redhead is Copper, and the one wearing the berretta is Ciel." I ruffled Penny's hair and added. "You already know Penny."

She grabbed it. "Ruby, leader of team RWBY. " She said, and I greeted the rest of the team with a quick hello.

"Can I take a look at your weapon?" Ruby said, fidgeting with excitement. "Yes, miss." I answered as I drew my weapon from its holster. I pushed the button to transform it into a rifle. The little girl was shaking with excitement as I gave my weapon to her. She quickly grabbed it out of my hand and proceeded to examine it in detail.

"You made this yourself?" She asked while changing it into a sword.

"No, I commissioned it."

"I can guessed that. You see the mark here?" She said as she pointed to an intricate P inside the trigger guard. "He is the same guy that designed and built Weiss's weapon."

"WHAT?!" A burst came from the white clad girl. "How can a common soldier afford a weapon designed by the maestro himself?"

"It is sponsored by the academy. Miss…?" I answered.

"Schnee, Weiss Schnee, Heiress to the Schnee dust company."

"Ah, sorry Miss Schnee, I couldn't quite place you." I said, reaching out my hand for a handshake. Instead of accepting my introduction, she brushed me off with a shrug. Without letting the silence of denial linger, the blond introduced herself.

"Hey! Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's sister." The busty blonde said and extended her hand. "I was wondering, what are you guys doing in Vale?"

"We are here to compete in the tournament, as representatives of Atlas academy." I answered.

"Wait, you're fighting in the tournament?" Weiss protested. "Forgive me but you hardly look the part, I had expected huntes of the highest caliber, not some common soldiers and a deranged girl."

"Says the girl wearing a skirt." I retorted.

"It's a combat skirt." She answered and received support from her leader Ruby who also wore a skirt.

"Wait a minute." Weiss said. "If you are here for the tournament, does that mean you know that monkey tailed rapscallion."

Before I could answer, the black clad girl interrupted us. ""Why do you keep saying that, stop calling him a degenerate, he is a person."

The white clad girl and the black clad girl began furiously arguing about the faunus. Weiss clearly showed a distaste for faunus while the black clad was defending the repressed people. "We should probably go." I said addressing my team, the discussion clearly deteriorating down to something more personal.

"Where are we going." Penny asked.

"Back to the school." I answered as I turned away from the group of girls. We laid a little distance between us and the girls.

"I wonder why Miss. Schnee was so insensitive considering her faunus companion." Penny said, surprising the entire team.

"What faunus are you talking about?" Copper exclaimed.

"Blake!."

"Blake?" I asked.

"The faunus!"

"You're running in circles Penny, describe her looks."

"The girl with the black bow covering her ears."

I thought about the weird team dynamics they must have in that team. A Schnee and a faunus, I wonder if a discussion that was evolving as we left was an usual occurrence.

We took the airbus back to beacon. Here we made our way to the gym to make up for us traveling the entire day, and not having time to train in the morning. We began running through the set, I counted and controlled the pace while the others follow suit. The aura had given us an advantage compared to my time in the army, and I had increased the load to compensate. Ciel, who had struggled in the beginning, had built up on enough strength to keep pace with the others. Halfway through our training a far too energetic girl ran up to us.

"Hello, my name is Nora, you seem to be having fun, can my team and I join in?" I continued with my exercises and tried to answer but was interrupted by a green clad man with a pink strip in his otherwise black hair.

"I am so sorry, Nora sometimes forgets herself, we won't disturb you any further."

"Don't worry, if you can keep pace I have no problem with you joining in." I answered. The rest of the team joined us, the green clad boy's name was Ren, and on his team, there was a red head named Pyrrha and a wimpy blonde named Jaune. "Hello, my name is Cobalt Early and I'm team leader of CCCP." Surprisingly instead of Ren or the strong Amazonian warrior Pyrrha it was Jaune that grabbed my hand.

"Jaune, team leader of JNPR."

We commenced with our training, Pyrrha and Nora had no problem keeping pace. Ren, clearly more used to using techniques instead of brute force, managed to follow, but not as a fast pace as the others. Jaune was a disappointment, his body clearly not toned for the rigors of being a huntsman. Numerus times he had to sit out an exercise clearly too hard to do for him, but as I pushed him and his team through the exercise I found him getting extremely disappointed in himself.

We ended the training, and as we left for our respective rooms, I drew Jaune to the side. "You want to become stronger?" I opened up staring intently at the blonde, and pinning him against the wall.

"Yes?"

"Six a clock tomorrow, I will pick you up at your dorm."

I left the bemused Jaune for our team dorm room. The room at Beacon was bigger than our room in Atlas, allowing space for four individual beds. The four beds still made it very cramped, and I would have preferred if we had had bunkbeds. Penny excitedly told her story of how she met team RWBY, excitedly emphasizing on how Ruby had called her friend. Copper doubted the truth of Ruby words, but this went unnoticed by Penny. "I want to meet them tomorrow, and maybe get down to the city to go shopping." Penny said, wishing for some more time in the city.

I took of my armor and sat down on the bed. "You can go shopping tomorrow, I would like to go to the range and try out the new rifle." I said removing said weapon from my side and hanging it in its holster over the front of the bed. "If you ever need our help, just call us." I added. Ciel and Copper agreed and both went to sleep. Penny took a quick shower before bed, and I turned in after looking up the floor plan of beacon academy, noting the position of the JNPR dorm and planning a route for the morning.


	7. The Mission

I awoke my team before sunrise, ordering them on a run around beacon academy. We first moved to the JNPR dorm, to pick up their team leader. The dorm was dead silent as we entered, and as we knocked on the door to team JNPR's room Jaune quickly exited wearing running clothes. I stopped him with my hand before he could walk out. "You need to wear your combat gear, and you should bring water for the run." Before he could answer, I turned him around and pushed him inside his room again. After a short wait, he exited again this time dressed in a more appropriate attire. "Now let's get going."

We exited the dorm, the rest of team CCCP waiting outside ready to take on my obstacle course. We first jogged to a cliff a short while out from beacon. The ground at the edge of the cliff had weird grey plates inserted into it, and it had been labeled as initiation grounds on the map over the compound. Just like my training regime in the gym, I had been forced to change the obstacle course a little to fit better to aura users. Instead of scaling the huge cliff side, as I would have done in the army, I jumped of it without pausing. Midair I took out my weapon in its sword form and stabbed it hard into a nearby tree. This slowed my decent enough for me to land without breaking any bones. This did not mean it was a soft landing, the area around me certainly felt the force of it, but aided by armor and my aura, I managed to do it without any damage. Copper slowed his decent with a steady flame, burning up the dust inside him to achieve lift. Penny arrived shortly after, coming to a stop by planting her blades into the mountainside and the trees.

"Penny, make a net." She acknowledged my command and intertwined the wires running from her swords, creating a net to stop the fall of Ciel and Jaune. I saw the face of Ciel looking over the edge, shortly after she jumped out from the cliff. During her fall, she turned on her back. She hit the net, her aura stopping it from slicing her into pieces. She quickly got out of the way, allowing Jaune to make his jump. "You told him to boost his aura?" Ciel turned towards me. "No, Sir." I immediately yelled at the blonde about to jump down from the cliff. "ACTIVATE YOUR AURA!"

A plan started to form in my head. . I ordered Penny to retract her net and removed my weapon from its sheath and transformed it into the rifle form which I aimed at the blonde. As he neared the ground I fired at his plating, the force of my shots made him activate his aura and slowed him down enough for me to catch him. I put the struggling blond down on the ground, and when he finally touched the ground, he turned to me in protest.

"What was that?" He protested, sorely touching the places the plates cowered his back, now marked with bullets.

"Ciel and I forgot to mention that you should have reinforced your aura. Therefore..." I turned to Ciel who already stood at attention. "I have special task for you and I, we are picking up a sizeable stone and bringing it back to academy."

"Wait, why?" Jaune asked as Ciel accepted the task.

"Because a mistake will lead to the death of someone else. This mistake could have ended in you dying; a little reminder will decrease the chances of it happening again." I answered as I sheathed my sword/gun.

We continued our little obstacle course through the forest, as we got farther from beacon more signs of the huntsmen's fight against the Grimm appeared. Overturned trees, burned trees, trees cleanly severed right through, well any damage seemed to be caused by the myriad of weapons in the arsenal of the huntsmen. When we entered a clearing where the ground was covered in ashes and the trees were black husks, we encountered our first Grimm. The Ursa was standing in the center, and I grabbed my rifle.

"This seems like a good spot." I said as began firing directly up into the air. As the sound of my rifle resounded through the forest, I heard the sound of the creatures of Grimm moving in on the disturbance to their kingdom. Ciel immediately sent out a bolt of lightning at the Ursa, and as it disintegrated we took our stance in the center of the clearing. "Jaune, I hope you're ready for a fight." I said as I scanned the tree line.

The still winded Jaune readied himself for the onslaught in response. Not a second too late for the second for suddenly a King Taijitu burst out of the trees. I opened fire at the snake Grimm and as I fired, Copper dashed in for the kill. "Ciel cover Copper while he fights the snake." I barked over the clamor of combat. "Penny and Jaune, we have the opposite side, you two engage them in melee while I provide ranged support." The combat commenced as the tree line was peppered with the red eyes of Grimm moving in on the location.

Ciel and Copper displayed their menacing duo, the monstrous damage Copper could do in close combat, and the incredible accuracy of Ciel complimented each other in a dance of fire and lightning. Every time Copper was about to be flanked by attacking Grimm, Ciel would blast the monster away, and Copper stopped any Grimm from reaching Ciel uncontested. In the other side of the clearing, Penny proved the superiority of Atlesian tech by taking out half of what came at our side. Jaune proved to be an excellent meat shield. His aura only decreasing by a miniscule amount each time he was hit. The fight dragged on, and the ash from the ground began to distort my vision of the battlefield. I brandished my sword and joined Jaune in the frontline.

My first opponent was an Ursa, it moved up on its hind legs to deliver a crushing blow to me. I transformed my sword into the rifle, unloading a salvo into the exposed chest of the Ursa. It shied away, and replacing it was a Beowolf. The Beowolf attacked with swift strikes. Without fazing I redirected its first attack with my armored arm. The plating held, and I finished of the offending Grimm by stabbing it through the head with my sword.

After a while, the fight slowly died down all around the clearing. "Gather 'round mates." I barked calling the training party into the center of our natural arena. "Great job guys, before we run back to beacon I want to give you guys some feedback. Penny, as always, beautiful job. Copper you need to keep a more even pace, try not fizzling out to fast and try to focus your energy to attack instead of letting it dissipate. Ciel you really need to brush up on your hand to hand combat, you amounted to little more than a civilian with a stun gun when the visibility dropped. Jaune you are the opposite of Ciel, you really need to obtain a ranged weapon." I stopped, drawing in a deep breath after unleashing such an onslaught of information. "Now do any of you have some feedback for me?"

Jaune thought a little on the question. "You need something that can take care of more armored opponents, you struggled with the Boarbatusk." He finally answered.

"Thank you, now let's get back to beacon." I said and began jogging in the direction of the academy.

On our way back to the academy, we found a temple, Jaune said that this temple had been the target during initiation. Ciel and I respectively grabbed a stone, and carried it back to the academy. We entered the campus and made our way to our dorm room to change into something not covered in ash. Jaune returned to his own dorm after saying that he would meet us in the mess hall. After placing the stone outside we entered our dorm to grab some clothes and made our way to the communal showers. After splitting up into the male and female shower rooms, Copper and I proceeded to paint the white tiles of the shower black. We dried ourselves up, and put on our spare combat suites. The girls came out shortly afterwards both wearing a spare set of their usual clothes.

After placing our dirty clothes in our room, we made our way to the cafeteria. The cafeteria at beacon academy had a striking resemblance to the one at the orphanage. The high vaulted ceiling was held by arcs of stone, and windows spanned the entire wall on both sides of the hall, letting in the light of the rising sun into the hall. The NPR part of team JNPR were already waiting for us. We grabbed our dinner and joined them, my team going for a hearty breakfast of bacon, sausages and eggs.

"What did you do to Jaune this morning? He arrived back at our room completely covered in ash?" Pyrrha challenged as we sat down at the table.

"A little morning training. Nothing out of the ordinary." I answered as I dug into my breakfast.

"A little morning training that involved shooting our team leader?"

"Sometimes accidents happens." I answered stabbing a piece of bacon.

"If anything happens to him…"

"You will be the first to know." I said trying to deescalate the situation.

"No, if something happens to him I will end you." She threatened and stood up from the table.

"Hey, Girlie." Copper broke in, chewing on a piece of sausage. "You stay away from Cobalt."

Before a fight could break out Jaune joined us, diffusing the situation. "Pyrrha, I was the one who agreed to join them, they didn't force me to anything." I sensed that Pyrrha did not believe him, clearly showing her distrust of me. Ren changed the subject to something less antagonizing.

"Have you guys seen team RWBY this morning? It sounded like there was a pretty heated argument last evening."

"Blake disappeared!" Nora answered. "They took a transport to the city this morning, and I saw them leaving without Blake! Maybe Blake has run away with the circus, to experience a new life as an acrobat, we should do that Ren, I could be a strong man and you could…" The hyperactive girl continued, fueled by a plate of pancakes covered in syrup. Penny stood up from the table. "I will go help them! They are my friends, and friends help each other in need."

"Are you sure that they want your help?" Copper asked a little muffled as he tore into a huge piece of bacon.

"Yes, they are my friends, they said so themselves."

"Are we your friends?" Nora asked almost assaulting the robot girl with puppy eyes.

"I am not sure. Copper and Ciel are my coworkers, and Cobalt is my boss. I do not know what you are. We could be friends."

"Yay." Nora answered, assaulting the robotic girl with a hug.

"Will you help me help RWBY friends?"

"No sorry, Ren says that I have to do homework today." The Valkyrie answered.

The robotic girl meekly said her goodbyes, and as she left the cafeteria a yellow marked soldier entered. He scanned the room, clearly looking for someone. As his gaze moved over our table he stopped his search, clearly having found what he was looking for. "Corporal Early, I have a message for you. The general wants you to report to the CCTS tower at eighteen hundred hours."

"Thank you soldier." I answered as I finished up my breakfast.

The soldier saluted me and left. Leaving a confused team JNPR. "You're a corporal?" Jaune said surprised.

"My military rank is still in effect." I answered. "It means that I get paid by the military and that I have command over my squad."

"You certainly do things differently in Atlas; I couldn't imagine Jaune and Ruby having such a commanding attitude towards us." Pyrrha stated still dissatisfied with my treatment of Jaune.

"Well, sometimes it looks like you need it, just look at the situation in team RWBY. A strong leader can diffuse those situations. Hell Cobalt stopped Ciel from killing me once." Copper retorted, clearly offended by the Amazonian's statement.

"A leader is not always a commanding voice. It shows great skill to resolve situations like that without grabbing to authority." She answered.

"But being able to use both will net the best result." Ciel chimed in, supporting Copper in my defense.

"Hey, don't begin fighting, it is hardly relevant. I use my authority when I need it, but negotiating a compromise will usually net the best results. Different methods different situations." I said. "I will be going to the range, I want to get in some time with my new rifle before my meeting with the general´."

The range was a long room, with cutouts of Grimm suspended on a rail in one side of the room. One could add obstacles at will, and if one wanted to try ones weapon against different types of plating, you had that option. Considering Jaune's word from the training, I borrowed a high caliber revolver from the armory at the school. After almost cutting my finger off after the revolver turned into a knife, I began firing with the heavy weapon. The kick was hard to deal with, however as I got used to it, I began putting bullets into the targets with my usual accuracy. The revolver would allow me to have an armor-piercing alternative to my rifle, and my aura combined with my armor allowed me to fire it onehanded. This made it possible to hold my sword while using it. While not able to display the gunplay of Copper in his fight against Spec. Schnee, I would be able to do something against the heavily armored Grimm.

After a couple of hours of in the range I delivered the revolver back and made my way to the CCTS tower. The tower was located at beacon campus and I arrived five minutes before my time ran out. I was received by the military police, which guard the tower, into a private messaging chamber. Here I found a holographic display in the center of a round room. I took my position and shortly after general Ironwood appeared, animated in blue light he still managed to display the authority connected to man of his position. I saluted the general.

"Corporal, good to see you, settling in well at beacon I hope?" He asked after dismissing my salute.

"Yes sir, the Beacon facilities are more than adequate for my team." I asked and placed my hands behind my back.

"Good." He answered, and he pressed a button revealing a mission file. "New mission for you, I have reports that stolen military goods may be brought to Vale by the white fang." He brought up a picture of a scruffy man. "This is Tukson, he is our informant, I want you to go to his bookstore, and find out where the goods are and what they will be used for. And in extension I give you permission to use more extreme means."

"Extreme means sir?" I asked.

"We are closing in on the Vytal tournament, and if the white fang wants to do some serious damage they would attack during this time. I give you permission to use less than legal means to stop this."

"I understand sir, we will not disappoint."

"And another thing corporal, I do not want Penny involved in this."

"Why not sir?"

"She is not a soldier like you and Copper, and Ciel is a special case. Please let her be a student."

"She is a great combat asset; it would be a mistake to not utilize her."

"Just avoid letting her in on the less savory parts of the investigation."

Before I could answer, my scroll rang. I cursed myself for not silencing it, but before I could hang up, I noticed that it was from Penny. I showed my scroll to the general. "I said she could call me if there was an emergency." I picked up the call.

"Sir. Explosions and sounds of fighting from the docks. Moving to investigate." Penny said from the phone.

The call immediately ended, leaving no time for me to order her to do something else. I turned towards the hologram of the general. "Sorry sir, I have to leave." The general nodded towards me, and turned off the transmission on his end. I ran for the armory. As I sprinted trough the beacon campus, I called Copper and Ciel in a group call.

"Where are you?"

"We are at the weapons shop in the City, what has happened?" Copper answered.

"Attack at the docks, how fast can you be there?"

"20 minutes. "

"Good, I will join you as soon as I can."

I entered the armory. Inside I found a female bunny faunus, she was cleaning her camera. "You, faunus, I need your help now." She complied confused, and helped me put on my plating. As I grabbed my helmet and a couple of extra mags, I realized that I would have no way to travel to the docks fast enough to make a difference. I closed my locker, but as I turned to lock it, a plan formed in my head. The faunus had returned to her camera, but was roused by my command. "Hey, I need your help again." She let out a shrug and returned to me. "Put in the coordinates of the docks, and then press fire when I have entered the locker." She let out a small protest but I dismissed it instantly.

The locker was not made for human travel, but I made do with holding on to the weapon holders. I nodded at the faunus, and she closed the locker and pressed the fire button. I felt the locker accelerate, and I accompanied the ascend with a chorus of swearwords. The locker reached the cusp and for a moment, I felt weightless. The world grabbed me again and I accelerated towards the ground. I braced myself against the sides of the locker, preparing for touchdown.

The collision was extremely disorienting, but I stayed inside, relying on the feeble protection provided by the metal locker. After a while, I regained my bearing, the pain fading as the aura did its job. Outside I saw Penny fighting a huge amount of white fang grunts. A couple of the faunus neared the locker, wary of the content. I smashed open the locker, covering my left side with the heavy metal door. I peppered the encroaching faunus with rifle shots. Penny was taking care of an innumerable amount of faunus. A wing of bullheads flew towards the docks, they did not bear a military marked, so I rationalized that they were white fang.

"Penny, Bulls incoming six o clock, give them a light show." I heard a short affirmative, and the robotic girl called her swords to her. She spun the sword in a circle, all pointed at the encroaching bullheads. A green blob of energy began building up in the center of her swords, and with it, Penny produced a laser that took down one of the bullheads. The others managed to land with their contingent of White fang grunts. They ran towards Penny and I, intermixed with the ordinary grunts I spotted some of the stronger lieutenants. While Penny and I faced the army of white fang, Blake and a monkey faunus faced the dangerous criminal Roman Torchwick. The red haired charmer was wearing a white jacket and his trademark bowler hat, complete with the red band. He displayed an extreme amount of skills as he fought the two faunus off and managed to climb onto one of the bullheads leaving with the dust haul.

We were joined by Ruby, which with her great speed and abnormally huge scythe carved huge holes in the white fang formation.

The fight ended when a fireball erupted inside the white fang formation. From behind us, I heard the shouts of a certain red haired individual. "Time for barbecue!" Copper pulled a pin out of his brand new grenades, but instead of throwing it like he had done before, he held it until it exploded. The fire coated him, and he ran up screaming like the reaper and began gutting his way through the faunus. The attack from both side, and the fact that one of the attackers might as well have been stepped out of a nightmare, broke the morale of the faunus, routing them back to their bullheads. Further forcing their retreat was bolt of lightning striking down into their formation. I turned to see Ciel standing on a high voltage mast, letting the current of travel through her and into her lightning bolts.

The dock was left with the exhausted bodies of white fang casualties. The police arrived, albeit a little late and began apprehending the white fang casualties. I joined up with the rest of the huntsmen in training. Copper was still slightly burning as result of his fiery entrance. "Looks like you bougth some new toys." I said as he closed. "These things are awesome, I felt on fire when using them." He answered. I ignored his wordplay. Blake and the monkey faunus joined us. The monkey faunus had the monkey tail to identify him as a faunus, and was wearing a white jacket. The jacket was open and revealed the craziest abs I have ever seen.

"Blake!" Ruby exclaimed as she ran up and hugged the cat faunus. "Please do not run away again! We can fix this together, if you just sit down and explain."

"Yeah you guys are friends." Penny added.

"You want some team privacy?" I asked and motioned to my team. Ciel had just joined us after clearing things up with the police.

"No, I do not want to leave any unanswered questions." Blake gathered us. "I grew up in the white fang. I was there as a child at the protest and the boycotts. However, one day everything changed. A new leader stepped in, on with very different values. Instead of peaceful protest, we began using force to hurt the companies that abused the faunus. So I left, I decided that I no longer wanted to use my skill to aid in their violence."

"See that wasn't so hard. Now we just need to convince Weiss." Ruby said.

"Convince me of what?" A certain white haired individual said from behind us.

"Look Weiss, she explained everything…" Ruby started. Weiss ignored her and squared off against Blake.

"We have used so much time searching for you, and during that time, I have been thinking." Weiss said. "I don't care. You're not one of them anymore, and that's all that matters to me."

"Yay, team RWBY is back together." Ruby busted out, forcing her team into a group hug with her semblance.

My team and the monkey faunus sat there in silence, appreciating the happiness that flowed out of the gathering of teens. They finally separated, and Ruby began retelling the fight to her white and yellow team members.

"Penny was like whoosh, with her swords and kicked extreme ass. Suddenly a rocket locker drops out of the sky like kapow, and out steps cobalt that was like bang bang bang, laying down the fire on the white fang." The red reaper told, while doing different poses, further emphasizing her story.

I left the gathering for the police officers placing the white fang prisoners in a wagon. "I would like to interrogate one of the prisoners." I asked the officer in charge.

"Sorry, police business."

I extended my hand towards the officer. "Corporal Early. Atlesian military. The people you have apprehended could deliver much information regarding an ongoing investigation."

"Sorry sir, Vale grounds, Vale business. Ask your superiors to request for a joint operation. Then you can get access to the prisoners." He answered, ignoring my outstretched hand.

"This investigation could save lives! I want to see the prisoners now." I demanded from the officer.

"And I have regulations to follow, now get out of my sight before I have you thrown out of the city."

I left disgruntled, and joined my team around Ruby closing in on the ending of her story. "And then Copper came, first he threw a grenade at the white fang, where after he set himself on fire with a fire grenade! If he had been using his fist, I would have thought it was Yang."

"You set yourself on fire?" Yang interrupted.

"Yeah I have fire dust infused into my body. Usually the fire will appear during the fight, as a byproduct of execs heat of me sending fireballs at my enemy. However, when I set myself on fire, I do not need to heat up and I can put up a better fight quicker." Copper answered. "Nothing crazy there, the true crazy is Cobalt and Ciel. Cobalt was at Beacon only ten minutes before the fighting started, and Ciel hooked herself up to the Vale power grid!"

"When you get more control over your power like me, you will be able to do things like that with ease." Ciel answered dismissing the claim of insanity. "There is no crazy in doing what you are capable of."

"How was the ride Cobalt? I cannot imagine it was comfortable ride." Copper continued ignoring the lightning girl.

"The ascend and the descend were not that comfortable. I would not recommend it to anyone." I said with a smile. Brushing of the experience as a minor disturbance.

I sent the locker back to Beacon and left the docks together with my team. We entered our dorm room, and as Penny entered the bath, I gathered Copper and Ciel for a briefing.

"General Ironwood has a mission for the three of us. He has intel that the white fang has acquired Atlesian military tech and that they are going to use this in an attack against Vale during the Vytal tournament. Our mission is to stop this attack at any cost."

"What about Penny Sir?" Ciel asked.

"General Ironwood has asked me to keep her out of the investigation."

"Why sir?"

"General Ironwood has his own reasons, I trust him to tell me if it has anything to do with the mission." I answered and brought up a picture of Tukson on my scroll. "Our first task tomorrow is to meet the informant, so get to sleep and be ready for the morrow."


	8. The queen's pawns

**AN: Hello m8ties! Another instalment in my story. Please follow, favorite and review!**

The sun heralded the coming morning and I got up from my bed. The dorm room still fast asleep, not a single movement and the only sound was of the birds outside the window. The events of yesterday weighed heavily on my mind. The white fang has become bold enough to attack the docks inside the cities. I checked my scroll for new messages. I noticed one from the general. "I expected a full debriefing at 20:00 on the events at the docks. Can't disclose too much, just meet me at the beacon landing pads come the evening." What? Is the general coming here? Filling the order in my mind for later, I moved over to the bathroom, cleaning myself up and making ready for the day.

After I had cleaned myself I roused the rest of my team, and we started our morning routine albeit a little shorter than usual, brought on by the events yesterday. We finished up and made our way to the cafeteria. Outside I saw the monkey faunus from yesterday. He was talking to a blue haired individual wearing a red jacket and lightly plated jeans. The monkey faunus noticed me, and waved us over to him.

"Cobalt was it? I was just telling my friend Neptune of the fight yesterday." He said as he motioned to his blue haired friend.

"Hello." I answered

Neptune gave me a quick nod, and moved past me towards Ciel. "Heyyyy beautiful." He greeted her. Ciel ignored him, and quickly joined Sun and I who were observing Neptune's failed attempts to seduce the girls on team CCCP. He moved on to Penny, not losing any morale after the defeat at the hands of Ciel. Before he could utter a single word, Ciel sent a bolt of lightning forward, striking the ground between him and Penny, clearly signaling that she was off limits. Penny smiled and ran up and opened the cafeteria door.

As the door opened, a huge amount of students came running out. I surveyed the inside of the cafeteria was in complete disarray in one side the more energetic part of team JNPR had arranged all of the tables in a huge pile. The other side was held by team RWBY, and as we entered, they lead an attack of untold proportions on the JNPR encampment. I immediately turned away from the carnage and led my team outside of the cafeteria again, deciding that I would rather eat my breakfast in the city instead of entering the chaos in the cafeteria. We took the airbus down to the city, and joined the festive mood that surrounded the city as we closed in on the tournament.

After eating a quick breakfast at local café, we began browsing the numerus shops crowing the city of Vale. The shops ranging from normal clothing stores, to weapon and dust shops, everything a part of a normal life as a huntsman. After an exhausting couple of hours, we finally arrived back at the landing, under my commando we had changed into our new outfits in the last shop we visited, our old clothes transported back to the academy with the rocket lockers.

Black jeans, held up by a black leather belt with a simple metal belt buckle, and a pair of combat boots rounded out my lower body. For my upper body I had gone with a black jacket with numerous pockets, the zippers lined with blue matching my eye color. Below my jacket, I had a white shirt and a blue vest. By my side, I had my sword holstered in its usual holster. My hands were covered by a pair of black gloves that were matched by similar pairs on Copper. Copper had gone for much the same look as I, but instead of leaving his pants spotless like mine, he had elected to tear a couple of holes in them. Instead of combat boots he had bought a pair of black shoes, marked with red. His vest was dark red, and he had elected to forego the jacket.

Ciel followed our black theme by exchanging her white stocking for black ones and putting on a black jacket that closed by the right side attaching to some buttons on her left side. The flaps of the jacket where lined with a golden color. She kept her light blue skirt and berretta. Her fingerless gloves had been exchanged for full gloves at my command. Penny had changed very little on her outfit, only making her outfit follow the black theme by buying a black version of her current clothes. She still had the same green glowing markings as before; the grey parts had just been exchanged for midnight black.

I looked around us, making sure that nobody was close enough to listen in on our conversation.

"Okay, Ciel, Copper and I are doing some errands for the general. So Penny you will have to kill some time by yourself at the academy." I opened up.

"What are you guys doing?" Penny asked still as chipper as always.

"Sorry Penny, general's orders; he doesn't want you in on the mission just yet."

"Okay." She answered meekly. "When am I coming in on the mission then?"

'When we face an enemy where we need our best fighter."

The compliment brought her mood back up again and she said goodbye to us and left us to catch an airbus to the academy.

We left the central landing area for the bookshop. The shop was located in the outskirts of Vale, leaving the streets around it empty of the commotion that usually followed the festival. I moved up to the storefront, the blinds where down, which I considered weird considering that according to the sign up front, he was still open to business. I tried the door handle, and as the door revealed itself to be locked. I began to consider my next course of action. Returning tomorrow would take too long, and the general had given me permission to use whatever means possible.

"Copper open the door." I ordered and left the storefront.

"What? Why? How?" He answered confused.

"Melt the lock of the door, Ciel and I will keep lookout."

"Isn't that illegal?"

"Do it, we do not want a repeat of the attack yesterday, the white fang has something big planned, I want some information before everything goes down."

"Yes sir."

The door quickly succumbed to Copper's flames, and he quietly opened the door, and goaded us inside. The shop had been trashed. Every bookshelf had been turned over, the content scattered all over the floor. In the center of it all was my contact. Severely mutilated with both cuts and burn marks. His aura had apparently been destroyed faster than it could regenerate the damage. "Do not remove your gloves; we do not want to leave prints." I said as Copper and Ciel dispersed into the shop. I ordered Copper to block the door to avoid any annoying visitors, Ciel began looking behind the counter and I began searching the body.

After finishing up with the body and finding nothing of value to the investigation, I moved into the back rooms of his shop.

Directly inside the door behind the counter I found a storage room for books. Up a quick flight of stairs I found the now deceased's apartment. The apartment had avoided the trashing the shop had received, and was neat and orderly. The apartment had three rooms, one kitchen, dining room and living room hybrid, a bedroom and a bathroom. The main room was rather cozy, he had a sofa that went from the wall facing the street following the wall until it made an L shape out into the room to divide it up. In the corner opposite of the L shaped sofa a television was standing. In the center of the sofa group there was a coffee table. The kitchen was in the other half of the room, built into the wall facing inwards away from the street.

I stepped into the room, surveying it for the place to start looking for clues. I decided on his bedroom where I found bags on the bed, fully packed and readied for a hasty departure. Copper joined me as Ciel finished up downstairs.

"Looks like he readied for a quick getaway." He said as he moved up to the bags, and quickly shuffled through them.

"Yeah." I answered and moved out into the main room again, and took up a tablet scroll placed on the coffee table. The scroll was locked.

"Ciel can you open this?" I waved the scroll in the direction of the infused girl.

"Sir, maybe if I had any idea of how scrolls work, but I don't."

"To bad, I'll bring it with me to the general, he can get someone in data security to work their magic on it."

"And I have an address." Copper said, waving a piece of paper walking out of the bedroom. "We could try looking up the address, it was found with his baggage, so this is probably his transport."

"Where is the address to?" I asked.

"Somewhere located near the industrial district, Junior's club. If that rings a bell?"

"No. However, now I have something for my debriefing with Ironwood."

We took all of the lien in the cash register and stripped the dead faunus of his valuables, and as we left we smashed open the door from the outside, making the scene look like a common robbery. We returned to Beacon, but found our dorm room empty.

I called Penny to find her location and she told me that she was at the library together with both team RWBY and JNPR. Having some time to kill before my meeting with the general, I made my way to the library. The library was built in much the cathedral style of the rest of the academy, first floor having the more popular books and public computers. Second floor was a walkway around an open center, allowing viewing down into the first floor. The second floor had tables for group work in-between bookshelves that stood out from the outer wall.

Between two such bookshelves, we found Penny and the two teams. Penny was spectating as team RWBY was dueling out the fate of Remnant in a board game.

"Hey, mates!" I greeted.

"Looks like someone has been out shopping." Yang remarked as Ciel and Copper brought chairs for us to sit on.

"Yeah, we got tired of walking around in our uniforms all day."

"What a nice change from uniforms." Weiss remarked sarcastically. "Now you do not look exactly like each other."

"I think a uniform appearance makes the team look professional, and we can still be distinguished from one another."

She shrugged me off, and returned to her game. I hanged my jacket on the back of my chair and grabbed a random book from the shelves to enjoy myself a little. The book I grabbed was titled "Forgotten leaders of the great war." I browsed down the back of the book containing a list of the commanders covered in the book. As I neared the end, the name General Buford Early sprung up at me. Funny that a commander in the Great War had the same last name as me. I opened the book and moved over to the page mention the general. The amount of information on the general Early barely covered a page, and in one corner of the page, the man was shown standing behind the leader of the kingdom of mantel, wearing the black and white parade uniform of the mantel military.

I began reading the short biography of the general.

"The character seen in the picture has been dismissed as a guard of the upper echelon of the mantel kingdom [1]. However, as I have taken closer look at the imposing soldier, I have revealed that this could be the leading character in the armed recognizance unit of mantel [Citation needed]. He started his time in the army as an agent of armed recognizance and his work placed the armed recognizance unit as one of the players in _The Chess Game of Remnant_ as seen in my book of the same title."

The shameless attempt to sell his own book in the middle of his article reeked of unprofessionalism, and the comments to his statements revealed that I was holding an unfinished product.

"After moving up the ranks he secured many victories for the kingdom of Mantel such as the uncovering of Vacuo submarines listening in on Mantel military communication [Citation needed]. However, as the war dragged on, he was forced back to Mantel as the insurgence of Atlas academy brought instability to the kingdom. This combined with the forces of Mantel being beaten back by the combined forces of individualist broke the Mantel kingdom. His last act as a leader of armed recognizance was to advice the king of Mantel and the allies of the kingdom to agree to the peace negotiations at Vytal [Citation needed]. And as Atlas academy took over the kingdom, he became the leader of the newly formed Special Operatives Unit, built upon the remnants of the armed recognizance of Mantel [Citation needed].

I finished the chapter and returned the book to its spot. Dismissing the thought that General Buford Early was in any way related to me, the Early surname while not common was not so uncommon that one could make decisions on ones heritage based on a badly sourced book. While I was reading, Sun and Neptune had arrived and after team RWBY had retired to their room after losing a crushing defeat to the army of Vale after Neptune took over for Blake. Penny, Copper, Sun and Neptune had started up another game. Neptune played as Vacuo, Penny as Vale, Sun as Mistral and Copper as Atlas. Penny was spreading her forces trough the world, making the world of Remnant bow to their new AI overlord.

I said my goodbyes and left for my meeting with general Ironwood. I neared the landing pads of Beacon, and I was waved inside into one of the capital ships by a navy officer wearing the green markings of his station. I was guided to the general's office in the center of the ship. The office was quite a bit smaller than the one he had at the academy, and featured only a desk with two chairs and a desktop scroll. There was a porthole allowing one to look out at the academy, and a white carpet adorned the floor. I saluted the general as I entered.

"At ease soldier pleas sit down." The general said, and I joined him and sat at the opposite side of the desk.

"Report Corporal Early." He ordered.

"The white fang was stealing a dust delivery from the Schnee dust company. Two faunus student, one of Beacon and another of another kingdom arrived first at the location and caused the explosion that alerted Penny. The white fang were led by the criminal Roman Torchwick."

"Why would a faunus rights group work with a human criminal?" He asked, I recognized it as a rhetorical question and continued my report.

"I arrived shortly after Penny by using a rocket locker as a transport. As I arrived, the white fang flew in another batch of soldiers. Miss Polendina managed to shoot down one with her laser, and we engaged the other two units in combat. Together with the team leader of team RWBY and the two faunus we managed to hold of the white fang until we were joined by Ciel and private Schizes. We broke the white fang morale, and routed them back to their ships."

"What happened to the white fang suffering from aura shook?"

"They were taken in by Vale police and I was denied permission to interrogate them."

"Don't bother, anything Vale drags out of them will be relayed to me through Ozpin, and we can't use more extreme methods even if we agree to a cooperation agreement."

"I understand Sir."

"Now, did you notice anything weird during the attack?"

"Yes Sir." I answered thinking a little on the evening. "There were no security guards guarding the shipment, especially weird considering the Schnee Company is aware of the dust robberies plaguing Remnant."

"Weird indeed." He said as he typed down some information on his desktop scroll. "Anything else?"

"Nothing I can think of."

"Thank you soldier, now have you contacted Tukson?"

"Yes sir, but we found him dead in his bookstore. He was also preparing to leave Vale."

"Damn, the white fang got to him before us."

"It wasn't a complete waste, we found an address and a scroll, the address is to somewhere called Junior's club. I was considering taking Copper and Ciel to it to talk to the owner tomorrow."

"No, wait for my signal; I want to take a look into the scroll before you go in."

"Sir if we do not react immediately there could be more casualties."

"And sending you in blind will result in you dying and even more civilian casualties."

"Yes sir."

I got up from the chair, saluted the general, and left the ship for my dorm. My team had already returned from the library, and Ciel was drilling Copper though another set of mediation, her herself taking part in activating her infused dust in different parts of her body.

"What are you guys doing?" I asked as I stripped down to my underwear. My words made Copper flare up in flames, but they were quickly brought under control again.

"Copper got a little too exited during the game." Ciel answered as she continued the unrelenting meditation.

"Copper you shouldn't get so mad over a game." I said to the meditating Copper.

"Sir, I didn't get mad, suddenly the game piece just melted in my hand." He answered, stopping his meditation.

He was goaded back into the exercise by Ciel and she turned to face me. "Losing control does not always mean getting angry, it means letting your feelings in general control you. Anger is just the most prevalent."

"So even extreme happiness would also lead to this reaction?"

"Yes"

"Remind me not to have sex with you Copper."

"Awww." He answered faking distraught and placing his hand over his heart. "You hurt my feelings."

"Get over it." I teased.

"But what will happen to my sex life?" He asked Ciel, faking nativity.

"You should avoid partners without an aura." She answered, not letting the direction of the conversation face her in any way.

"Ohh how do you know that, oh great sensei?"

"Sexual education, my family ensured that my education was thorough."'

"Practical examples?"

A little electricity jumped back the neck of Ciel, unnoticed by both Copper, still in his teasing mood, and Penny, who bore striking resemblance to a red-hot piece of iron. What are you hiding lighting lady? Apparently nothing you would like to share with the rest of us.

"No. Get back to meditating." She ordered, dismissing the teasing of the fire infused.

I jumped up into my bed and decided to let the problem lie. Ciel's conviction and control would not let any of it ever influence a mission.


	9. Forged in Fire

Our first class at beacon was combat class. Most of the students traveling to the academy were there, either to partake themselves, or evaluate their opponents. The proceeding was much like in atlas. One fighter was chosen by the teacher and then the student would chose an opponent. Unlike Atlas the teacher would sometimes pit groups of students against a single person. I watched in marvel as Yang from team RWBY kicked the ass of three other students. Copper was chosen as the next contestant. He put on his helmet and made his way down to the arena.

He was, like me, wearing his new outfit with the plating on top. He moved his gaze over the assembled students. His gaze stopped at the invincible girl.

"I want to fight Pyrrha." He said playfully, the flames of his dust already playing around his arms.

"Happy to oblige." Pyrrha answered and stepped up onto the ring.

The smoldering bloomed into full-blown flame as he readied up in the ring. He brought up his sword in his right hand, signaling to his opponent that he was ready to fight. Pyrrha readied her spear like weapon in its rifle form, intent on at least putting some bullets into the soldier before he could close.

The teacher, Ms. Goodwitch, if I remember correctly, signaled the beginning of the fight. The red haired girl opened fire, and copper answered by hitting the bullets out of the air, avoiding being hit even a single time. He slowly paced forward, and as he closed he sent out a ball of fire, allowing him to move up into a sprint as she had to stop firing while avoiding the flaming ball of death. He closed in with Pyrrha, and they began their dance of death. Pyrrha was by far the most mobile, showing this by dancing around the Copper.

Something seemed of, every time Copper was about to score what seemed like a sure hit, the sword seemed to have a life of its own and missed Pyrrha. Copper was growing irritated in his inability to hit the redheaded warrior. Even when he tried land a kick against her, he was redirected in the same way as before. His frustration grew, apparent by the intensity of the flames covering his body.

"Sir." Ciel said. "We may need to step in. His flames are getting out of hand."

"What do you mean?" I answered.

"His gloves, they are being consumed by flames. He is unable to keep the flames on the outside of his aura."

I got up from my seat, and Ciel followed me. As I walked past Penny sitting together with team RWBY, I ordered her to find a bucket of water.

The fight was literally heating up in the arena. Coppers armguards where red-hot and his outfit had burned off in multiple spots. His aura was still in the yellow, but I did not help him as the flames, now out of control, sprouted inside his aura instead of on it. He had discarded his sword, and was using his fire combined with the hand to hand combat we had learned in boot camp. Pyrrha was sweating, not used to fighting close to what amounted to an open forge.

As Copper tried to grab her shield with right arm, I saw how his arm was stopped before he could grab the shield. Probably the cause of whatever had earned Pyrrha the title the invincible girl. Suddenly Coppers bracers flew of, the bindings having given up after the intense heat and stress. His forearm blistering with heat Copper managed to grab Pyrrha's shield, and tore it to the side allowing him to send a ball of fire directly into the face into the female warrior.

"Stop the fight." I said decisively to Ms. Goodwitch as I got down from our position in the amphitheater.

"I was just about to." She answered and pressed a button on her scroll. The signal to stop the fight resounded in the arena. Pyrrha immediately stopped her fighting and laid some distance between her and the furnace that was Copper. Before Copper could let his anger and frustration get the better of him, he was blasted backwards by a lightning bolt striking the ground in front of him, sent out by Ciel on my command. Copper landed before where I stood with my hands behind my back. With a quick movement I ordered Penny to dump the barrel of water she was carrying on the flaming soldier. The barrel was absolutely huge, easily several times the size of the little robot, and it was able to completely coat Copper in water.

The smell much like cooked ham emanated from the prone body. The smell of pork and the fact that I was getting a steam bath curtesy of my longtime friend was quite frankly disgusting. His plating was completely contorted after being cooled down so suddenly. I sent Penny to find another batch of water, where after I grabbed my rifle and shot of straps holding his armor together. I heard a gasp from the amphitheater as I first leveled my rifle at the soldier, but as I tore his plating of the sounds of protests stopped.

Removing the plating revealed the damage done to Copper, blisters snaked up his body, following the lines of dust in his skin. His hands were almost completely covered in blisters, and had clear distinctions where the metal had covered his body. Ms. Goodwitch immediately dialed the infirmary, as the damage was unveiled. Penny returned with another barrel, and I proceeded to carefully cool down the more damaged parts of him. While I was cooling him down Ciel was sitting with his head in her lap, she was staring intently into his eyes and slowly guiding him through putting the fire out in his body.

The medical staff of the academy arrived and as they holstered Copper up on a stretcher. We followed them through the academy and patiently waited outside the infirmary for them to finish treating his burns.

After a while, they allowed us inside. Instead of the grey stone of the rest of the campus, the infirmary had white laminated floors and white painted walls. The layout was one big room with medical beds for the people staying there. Connected to the main room trough a door was the operating room as evident from the sign on the door. Opposite the door into the operating room, there was a storage room. The beds where huge, made to encompass the girt of every student at the academy. They had wheels for easy transport and were able to be lifted up into a sitting position, allowing the patient to sit up.

Copper was sitting in his bed when we pulled the curtain separating him from the other beds away. "What was that soldier?" I asked. "I have never seen you become that frustrated because of a fight."

"Sir, all my fighting life I have been fighting with my sword. Hell. I even consider myself pretty proficient with it, but when I fought Pyrrha suddenly I was unable to deliver a proper blow. Every attack felt like I was being slowed down. Frustrating is putting it lightly, rage inducing is what I would call it."

"Learn from this event and keep yourself more in check." I ordered.

"I also have plans for way to get you more training in keeping his feeling in check." Ciel added.

"Good, whatever it is we will get started when Copper recovers."

"Hey do I not get a say in that." Copper asked from his medical bed.

"No" Ciel and I answered in unison.

We returned to dorms, Copper stayed in the hospital wing, but the nurse said that he would be up and running tomorrow. Penny had left for RWBY's dorm, she said that they had acquired a new game. Ciel clearly tired after the nerve racking experience in the arena. She sat on her bed, and I sat down at the opposing bed.

"Have you ever experienced something like that before?" I asked the infused girl. "You seemed pretty in control as things went down."

"My family has always fought with the power of infused dust. I have experienced the same during my upbringing; I just did what they did during my episodes."

"Have you had a lot of those?"

"When one is younger, one is more prone to follow ones feelings."

"And do you have complete control now?"

"No, even my grandmother, who was one of the greatest infused ever, could not hold her child after her birth in fear of electrocuting it. She was just too happy."

"No wonder your family is the only one using infusion."

"If he wants to reach the pinnacle of his powers, then yes. Feelings pollute the product."

"And where are you ranked comparatively?

"I am top tier, I displayed an affinity for the infusion much higher than my peers, and I was groomed accordingly. That is also why I do not use a weapon, I am the weapon."

"And you are okay with that?"

"I have no strong feelings one way or the other Sir" She finished.

I was at a loss of words. What should one respond in a situation like this? She was the exact opposite of Penny, a human made into a robot.

The silence was broken by a knock on the door. "Come in." I bellowed, and the door opened to reveal Ms. Goodwitch. "Cobalt Early, Ozpin would like to see you in his office." I got up from my bed, and joined her as we walked towards the center of the academy.

We arrived at Ozpins office. The headmaster was standing in the center of a huge round room. Above us the clockwork turning the machinery of beacon worked, everything clicking in and adding to eerie feeling of the room.

"Welcome Cobalt, I want to talk a little on the scene today." He said as a beginning to our conversation. "Why is one of the students visiting from Atlas endangered by his own body?"

"Private Schizes is a very recent addition to the team, and during his initiation he had his aura activated. This, combined with him having fire dust in his system, forced him into the current state."

"I know the basis of dust infusion, what I want to know is why are there two dust infused students, an already rare breed, on the same team?"

"Pure coincidence Sir, we did not know Private Schizes was a fire dust infused before he joined the team."

"Mhm." Ozpin answered in acknowledgment. "Why do they call you sir?"

"I am their superior officer, it is common curtesy."

"Is that your goal in life, to be respected as an officer?"

"No. My goal is to what's best for Atlas, and that requires a professional squad."

"Is Ciel the ideal Atlas?"

"She is the ideal soldier."

"You are dismissed." Ozpin finished without acknowledging my answer, and as the doors to the elevator closed, I heard Ozpin dial up the general. "Ironwood get up to my office." The general seemed to be in some kind of trouble, Ozpin was probably dissatisfied with how Ironwood had structured things, Ozpin seemed to be against the military discipline I had drilled into my team.

I entered our dorm room, Ciel was doing something on her scroll and Penny was still over at RWBY's dorm. I sat down on my bed, exhausted after the events of today.

"What did the headmaster want?" Ciel asked me from

"He interrogated me on the composition of our squad."

"Why sir?"

"No idea, but he seemed annoyed by something."

"Anything we should prepare?"

"Let's wait and see

After a while, the door flew open to reveal general Ironwood flanked by two Atlesian knights. "Pack your things." General Ironwood ordered. "Ozpin wants team CCCP of campus."

"Sir what about Copper and Penny?" I asked.

"Pick them up, Ozpin wanted the entire team of campus, and we have medical facilities on the ship."

"Yes sir." I answered and turned to Ciel. "Ciel you get Copper, I will go pick up Penny." Before anyone else could get a word in, I turned back towards the general. "Our stuff in the armory, could you have someone take our lockers to the ship?"

"Yes." He answered and ordered the robots on their new task with his scroll.

We quickly packed our bags and the general used his impressive mechanical augmentations to carry the four bags belonging to the team to the ship. I put on my helmet and made my way to team RWBY's dorm. I looked menacing in my full getup the armor giving a lot of weight to my steps. I marched into the dorms of the local teams and knocked on the door to RWBY's dorm.

The door was immediately opened by Ruby.

"Yes?" She asked carefully.

"I have come to pick up Penny."

"Penny, Cobalt is here." She said to someone behind her to the robot girl and opened the door further.

Penny was sitting on the bottom bunk of one of the makeshift bunkbeds in the room. Blake was sitting on the top bunk while Yang and Weiss where sitting on the opposite bed. Penny got up from the bunk. "Why are we leaving?"

"Ozpin has kicked us of campus."

"What? Why?" Weiss asked.

"I do not know the reason, but it was tied into the occurrence at the arena today, Ironwood said he would debrief us later."

"Will Penny be able to come by later?" Ruby asked

"I do not think so, not on campus at least, but she will be able to meet you in the city."

Penny said her goodbyes and we left for the landing pads.

"So Penny, what did you do together with team RWBY?"

"We played videogames, *hic* and planned a shopping trip for Friday, *hic*."

"That sounds nice." We could plan our visit to Junior's club the same day. Penny would be out of the picture and we would have free hands to act.

We entered the ship, and made our way to the general's office. Ciel was there, standing in her usual rigid pose. The general was sitting behind his table, but got up as we entered the room.

"Ozpin has drawn on some old regulation of the Vytal tournament allowing him to deny troublemakers access to the hosting campus."

"We are sorry for putting you in this situation general." I apologized

"You should not be. Ozpin is just trying to coddle his students. You served as a reminder of the cold word out there, and he wanted you off campus."

"What is the plan now?"

"You will still partake in the tournament, but you will be living on the ship and doing you training in a warehouse on the docks."

"Yes sir."

"The sleeping hall is in section A and you have bunk 1, 2, 3, and 4 during the night." He added, reading up from a paper.

Penny was about to ask what that meant, but I quickly waved her with me as we left the office. I explained the workings of a military plane to the female robot. We would sleep in the bunks during the night, and during the day, another soldier would use the bunks.

The beds where exactly what one would expect from a military ship. Twenty-four bunks in one room, only separated by a short walkway. There was lockers arrayed in the back of the room, and the soldiers on night duty caught some sleep during the day. I stowed my stuff inside my locker and left Ciel and Penny to go check up on Copper.

Copper had been transferred to the medical bay on the ship, and as I entered, I saw him with a flame between his hands. The flame was burned steadily and with an intensity that could tear right through a sheet of metal. The medical bay on the ship was a small room with a spot for the doctor to sit, and a bunk for the ailing patient. A medicine cabinet hanged on the wall containing painkillers, bandages and other things one would need to stabilize a patient.

"What are you up to?" I asked as I sat down at the doctor's chair. At my interruption, the flame sputtered out, and copper was left with a tired expression.

"Trying this new meditation method. I am to imagine a flame, and then I place everything in that flame letting it be consumed and leaving me with an empty mind to use my flames."

"What do you mean everything?"

"Feelings, memories, ideas, everything."

"Is it working?"

"I haven't achieved it yet, but it feels very close."

"Good job soldier, we are going to kick so much ass at the tournament if you get the basics down."

"I don't think I will be able to hold it during battle."

"Don't worry about that, training is the answer."

"Understood Sir."

Copper returned to his meditation, the flame started out weak and flickering however as he got further into his meditation the flame increased in intensity and strength. I sat watching over him for an hour, the flame slowly gaining a more bluish tint.

Shortly before I was about to leave the flame achieved its pure blue color. I stayed in my seat, observing the meditating Copper, with this we would be unstoppable. Two formidable dust users able to entirely erase their emotions in favor of proficiency in battle, and a top of the line Atlesian robot. A squad, while still in its infancy, that had the groundwork whereon to build a machine that would tear through the enemies of Atlas. _*Ahem*_ Humanity.

However, as I dreamed of our future, the flame Copper fed began sputtering and failing. A single tear dropped down from his eye.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I got it." He stammered.

"But why did you let go?"

"I was wrong." He looked straight at me. "Like watching everything in third person."

"I know it is hard, but you have to push through." I said. "You have seen what Ciel can do, if you learn the same, we will be unstoppable."

"I…" He said stifling a sound of protest. "It will take some time, I need to be strong enough to pull through the first shook, but I think it will be easier afterwards."

"Like jumping into a pool of water."

"Yes… Like jumping into a pool of water."

I patted him on the back, left the medic bay, and began walking around the ship. The only sounds in the ship was that of the beating wings, slowly beating in beat to the movement of the ship. The ship was cramped, the armory and robot storage leaving little room for the personnel staffing the ship.

After walking aimlessly around the ship for some time I made my way back to our beds in the back of the ship. The soldiers began changing shifts, the day soldiers moved in for some sleep, while the night soldiers woke up and left for their posts on the ship. Penny and Ciel had already used the adjoined showers and grabbed their bunks for the evening. Both having gone to sleep much earlier than I.

I took of my plating and combat suit and jumped into the top bunk reserved for me. Above me, there was a venting duct, ensuring that I would receive a blow to the face if I woke up with a sudden motion.

Surprisingly the motion and sound of the room actually made it easier to fall asleep. There was a certain feeling of hominess in the sounds of 20 people moving and turning in their sleep.

 **AN: I have updated chapter 1-2, I am considering doing all of the chapters, but it seems like a very daunting task. If you want me to do so, please leave a review saying so.**


	10. Clubbing

Copper was ready to go the next day, his aura had taken care of his burns and a new uniform had been acquired from the quartermaster of the ship. We started our day in the warehouse at the docks. Well I say warehouse but it was actually only a part of the warehouse. Crates were stacked high around us denying anything more than single combat, this gave Copper an advantage as he excelled in close quarter.

After we had warmed up, we began our duels elimination style. Copper and I started. He decided against using his dust, but still dismantled me in the tight quarters of the warehouse. I was eliminated and forced to observe the other until it was my turn again.

Ciel stepped in to fight Copper. However, before they could engage I ordered Copper to not use his sword. Their fight commenced. Ciel clearly had the upper hand in the dust department, and Copper struggled to achieve the same serenity as Ciel. Copper realized this, and pressed his attack to close with Ciel. In close quarters Copper reigned supreme. After a quick exchange of kicks and punches loaded with the power of dust, Copper managed to put Ciel in a lock.

A battle of wills ensued, the two infused pushed against each other's aura. Sparks and flames flew out of the two fighters. It ended when Ciel's superior control overwhelmed the stranglehold of Copper. Her electricity shot through Copper's body and Ciel emerged victorious.

Penny was the next contestant. She faced Ciel after Ciel had eliminated Copper from our duels. Penny used her swords magnificently, both to redirect current into the ground using the cables as conductors for the electricity being emitted by the infused girl, but also as an offensive tool stabbing and slicing Ciel.

This was our training regime for most of our mornings the winner of the match would face the next one in line. Penny managed to build up the longest streak, due to her synthetic stamina and skill. I on the other hand never had a streak above one. Only beating my teammates when they had exhausted themselves after a couple of rounds.

After we had gone in rounds and everyone had faced everyone, we moved to more specific exercises. I drilled Ciel in the basics of hand to hand combat, while Copper began meditating to exercise his control of his aura. Penny sat down on one of the crates and began texting on her scroll.

As I had remarked in our little outing with Jaune, Ciel really had little experience in close quarters, her only power being that of her immaculate control of dust. We started out with some basic blocks. I would show her the moves, and she would repeat them until I was satisfied. To further ingrain them into her memory, we did some practical examples where I would attack her, and she would block.

We neared our end of our training session. Ciel had gotten the basics down quite admirably, managing to block attacks on the fly as I delivered them.

"Can I try something Sir?" She asked. "I you could attack me once more." I did as she asked, and as I hit her block with a right hook it felt like I just hit an electric fence. My hand flew of her, and I realized that she had sent her electricity into her block transferring it into me.

"Great idea." I said as I recovered from the shock. "I am glad you have taken a proactive look at your fighting style." After finishing up with Ciel, I walked over to Copper still nested in mediation, trying to perfect his flames. The flame was completely blue, a testament to the concentration he was in.

Ciel moved up besides me. "It seems he is ready for the next step in his training." I nodded and she moved up to Copper and rested a hand on his head. Copper only reaction was his flame flickering a short second as his concentration took a hit. "You heard us." Ciel asked the meditating fire boy.

"Are you ready for the next step in your training?" Ciel asked as she stod there with her hand on his head. He answered with a short nod but this was not enough for Ciel. "Say it. This is the first step for your training." The flame lost some of its blue shine, but Copper managed to stammer forward a reply. "I am ready." His voice sounded almost metallic, just like Ciel's.

Without further ado, she sent a small burst of lightning down into the meditating Copper. Copper squirmed and lost control of the flame, the color rapidly changing from the blue shine to the red color of an impure flame.

"Again." Ciel ordered, still resting her hand on his head. With a short sound of protest, he returned to his meditation. The flame achieved its blue color shortly after, much faster than he had done in the sickbay yesterday.

Their meditation continued, Ciel continued to bring Copper out of his serene state and he began using more time on his initial meditation. "I know it is frustrating." Ciel said as she coerced him into another round of her unyielding exercise. "You need complete control so that any feelings never impact you during battle, and this is only achieved by unyielding exercise."

We were interrupted by the door to the warehouse opening. This revealed General Ironwood. Copper tried to get up from his position. However, he was stopped by Ciel forcing him onwards in his exercise.

Penny and I moved up and greeted the General with a salute.

"How are you holding up?" He asked after acknowledging our salute.

"We are a little constrained in space, but we are making do." I answered.

"Good. Corporal please follow me outside." He ordered and turned around, automatically expecting my compliance.

The warehouse was on the edge of the harbor, so as I stepped out I felt the full force of the ocean winds. The harbor was a bleak location, the uniform concrete building giving little color to the area. The monotony was only broken by ships from the other kingdoms being unloaded at the warehouses.

"You have a green light for the mission." He said as he stared out over the ocean.

"Did you manage to dig up any information sir?" I asked.

He brought up a picture of three people. "We managed to dig this picture out of the scroll." He pointed to a huge man talking to two smaller women. "This man is Junior, the owner of the club. His official record says that he has an education from Signal. However you should not underestimate him."

He moved his finger over to the two young women. They were dressed in skirts, one white and one red. They were covered in makeup, and wore strapless battle skirts. The white one wore high heels, clearly spotted with blades, while the other had clawed gloves. "This is the Malachite twins, they are mercenaries hired by junior to guard his club. They pack more of a punch than normal thugs do, but I think you squad will be more than adequate. They have had a past in other mercenary work, but nothing that has drawn the attention of Atlas."

He put away the picture. "He also has a number of thugs, but they should in no way be a problem."

"Thank you Sir."

"When are you moving on the club?"

"Next day off, Penny is doing something with team RWBY, so we have free hands."

"Good." He said as an acknowledgment of my plan before he changed subjects. "I have the police rapport of the Tukson murder." He handed me a file branded Vale police. "Admirable job, you covered your tracks expertly. I feel that you will have a future in special operatives if you continue this way."

"Thank you sir." I said and saluted him.

The next couple of days where used for training. We did not have access to the recreational facilities at Beacon, and Penny, who was the one who usually the one inciting that we should take a pause, was stunted as she could not set anything up with her friends at Beacon.

Copper quickly got the hang of the meditation together with Ciel and moved on to doing simple exercises while maintaining concentration. During our morning training he would keep a flame going as we set on our run along the docks, and after our usual bout he would do the moves drilled into us at boot camp together with Ciel while still maintaining his flame.

The day came for the mission. After our morning training Penny left to meet team RWBY in the city. Ciel, Copper and I readied ourselves for our mission.

Copper strapped on a couple of grenades, while Ciel readied three auto injectors of dust. One of fire for Copper, and two of lightning for her. Her reasoning being that she had more control of her powers than Copper, and therefore could take a bigger dose.

I cleaned my rifle, readying it for the mission. I really needed to give it a name. A couple of names had surfaced in my mind during my training with it. "Destructor", "Punisher" or maybe even "The law" but nothing had really fitted to what I wanted.

* * *

Juniors club was in a warehouse in the less reputable part of town, close to the docks. Therefore, we only had a short walk to the club. The huge cargo doors into the club where closed as we arrived, but I did not falter and went up and knocked hard on the metal doors.

"We are closed." I heard from behind the doors.

I started out diplomatic. "We are here to talk to your boss." I bellowed to the person behind the door.

"He would have told me of any meetings today, come back later."

"I insist."

"Piss off." He answered rather aggressively, obviously annoyed by our nagging.

I motioned Copper forward towards the door. Copper immediately covered his arms in the blue fire of our training, his face a solid mask revealing no emotion. A blue ball of fire spewed forwards from the fire infused sending molten metal bursting into the club and creating a hole in the door. Ciel and Copper moved in first and cleared a path before me. The club was covered in the red and black colors that could be trademarked back to Junior. The center of the club was dominated by the dance floor, and all around there was a walkway that had booths situated at tactical spots. The whole room was lit up by glaring spotlights and crazy disco lightning from the floor.

As soon as we entered we were assaulted by multiple thugs, Copper and Ciel immediately moved to intercept them. Ciel used her lightning to mow down swats of the attacking thugs, her incredible control taking care of anyone taking aim at us. Copper began juggling his grenades, throwing them at groups of thugs entrenched in the booths, where after he engaged the demoralized groups with his sword in one hand and blue flames covering the other.

I stood and waited for Junior to arrive, and as the last of the thugs had been beaten into submission, he stepped out from the back room. He had already brandished his giant rocket launcher, and I saw the Malachite twins form up behind him.

"You have my attention, why should I not blow you to pieces this second?"

"Junior I presume?" I asked rhetorically. "I am here because one of your associates has been killed." I brought up a picture of the battered Tukson, which I had pilfered from the police report given to me by Ironwood. "He knew something, something he knew he could killed for. So he contacted you, Junior."

"Fuck off, I know nothing."

"Oh but I think you do." I drew my weapon and in one motion, I fired at the two twins standing beside him. "Restrain him." I ordered, and the club descended into battle once again.

The Malachite twins did not take much damage from my shots. They left the side of Junior, and engaged Copper and Ciel in single combat. Junior fired a rocket at me, and I rolled out of the way, and fired a couple of shots at the huge man. He changed his rocket launcher into a club, and blocked my shots. I changed to burst fire, intent on overwhelming the defense of the bar manager with a hail of bullets.

Junior charged me and I changed my rifle to a sword. He initiated with a downward smash, which I handily avoided with a short step to the side. Before he could retract his attack, I delivered a stab to his chest. His aura deflected it, but not before I had delivered a menacing scar down his side.

He took up his club and delivered a sideways swipe. I brought up my sword to block, but I was still sent flying by the force of the hit. I collided with one of the booth tables. Due to my aura and armor I received little damage from the collision. From my positon in the booth I aimed my rifle and emptied it at the enclosing barman. He blocked most of the bullets, but the ones that hit staggered the huge man.

Before he could close the distance he was blown back by the lightning emanating from the fight between Ciel and the red malachite twin. Ciel was glowing, her robotic expression fixated on her face as she sent bolts of lightning at everyone around her. Ciel's clothing was torn and down the side of her face there was claw marks. She had probably evaluated that she was losing and had decided to draw her trump card. At her feet, I saw the spent cartridge of an auto injector.

The small respite in fighting gave me opening to evaluate our fight. From my scroll nested at my belt I saw that Ciel had about half her aura left, and Copper had only lost a little more than a quarter. I was the best of, but I had only just entered the fight. Copper was doing a quite an admirable job taking down the entire club in his quest to kill the white clad malachite twin. Every flammable thing in his side of the club was burning. He had used his flames, now red, to herd the white clad twin into a corner, and with a last show of fiery power he sent a ball of fire into the white clad girl.

After reloading my gun, I shot down one of the spotlights in the celling. I grabbed the cable that was torn down by the weight of the spotlight, and walked over to the incapacitated barman. He had been thrown straight across the dancefloor and collided with the DJ booth. The force of the impact had knocked the pin out of the record and it was now stuttering. I put a hole through a red foam bear head. The man got the idea and popped out from his cover to lift the pin of the record. Junior had passed out from aura depletion so I tied him up to one of the supporting beams holding up the booth.

Ciel and Copper joined me in front of the downed barman. Copper looked unwell as he walked towards me. "Sir, requesting permission to leave and get some fresh air." He asked.

"Permission granted soldier, you did a great job." He turned away from me and left the club. Ciel watched him leave.

"He seemed uncomfortable." She remarked as Copper had left.

I agreed, offering no further thought to the positon of my teammate, and turned towards the restrained Junior and slapped him awake.

"Ready to answer some questions Junior?"

"Bastard."

"I take that as I no." I said as I smashed down on his knees, shattering his kneecap.

"What do you want to know?" He stammered out after composing himself after my violent retort.

"I want to know why Tukson died."

"I do not know." He answered

"Wrong answer Junior." I said and moved to smash his other knee.

"He wanted to tell on the White Fang." He blurted out before I could continue.

"Good job Junior, now for something more interesting, what had he revealed?"

"He had planned to tell the Vale police of some dust transports the White Fang were planning on hitting."

"Wrong answer again." I said and smashed my foot into his knee. Junior had tried to test the waters, what information could he leak that would make us go away that was not too sensitive.

"You are really bad at this, now, what did he reveal?" I continued

Junior was panting. "He…He planned to reveal an attack on the Vytal tournament."

"Good Junior, but he knew more, what was it?"

"If you already know, why are you asking me?"

I kicked his elbow, bending his arms the wrong way. "I am the one asking the question."

"They were operating out of Mountain Glenn. Please let me go." He pleaded.

"Not so fast Junior, what are they doing there?"

"I do not know. My only task is to report defectors. So please, will you let me go?"

"We have an agreement Junior." I answered and knocked him unconscious with a well-placed boot to the side of his head.

"Should we kill him?" Ciel asked from behind me.

"No we should not. If we build up a reputation of killing the people we interrogate, there will be no reward for telling the truth, and so it will get progressively harder to interrogate people."

"But he could jeopardize the mission if he told on us."

"Yes, but then we would also have to kill everyone here. This would draw an attention of the police we do not want."

"I do not like dying." I heard a shaky voice from the DJ booth.

"That is a sentiment I share." I answered and motioned for Ciel to follow me outside.

As we turned towards the door, and I cursed myself. In walked Yang, Ruby, and Penny. Behind them Copper slowly stammered in, looking at me with a worried expression. Ruby looked horrified at the damage that was caused to the club. However, as she neared one of the bodies, she seemed to come to some kind of realization, which calmed her down. Yang looked positively impressed.

"Wow, it seems you really had a party in here." She said as she stepped over the bodies of henchmen to close Ciel and me. "I am disappointed in you guys, you did not invite me." She continued, faking a distraught voice.

"We did not know you would be interested." I answered.

"I have kicked my fair share of Junior ass, and Ruby here has also done her part. She kicked the ass of a group of his henchmen robbing a dust store." Yang proudly stated.

That explained her relaxed composure I thought to myself, team RWBY seems more special than I first thought. I will need to compose a file on them, they seem to be more than normal students.

"Why are you here?" I asked and walked up to them. Ruby had taken a gun from one of the henchmen and was pulling it apart.

"Why are you here?" Yang retorted, both Penny and Ruby staying silent. Yang had obviously taken charge as the talker. The others would probably have screwed it up.

"We are investigating what happened at the docks, and we were told that Junior here." I pointed backwards at the man leaning unconscious on one of the poles holding the DJ booth, his wounds not apparent from a distance. "Could provide information."

While not completely the truth, it would present a good enough reason for them to reveal theirs. I knew I hit dust when Penny locked positively ecstatic at my words. "See." She said. "We should have included them in our plans."

"Penny…" Ruby said as she tried to stifle the sound of the eager robot.

"No." The robot girl said. "I trust Cobalt and I think we should let him into the mission."

Ruby looked suspiciously in my direction. She probably harbored some distrust for me because of my team's unfortunate exit of Beacon. No matter.

Yang considered Penny's words and looked at Ruby. Before Ruby could take charge and deliver a decision her scroll rang. She picked up the call, and after a short second of listening she hanged up. "Yang, Penny, Blake needs us." They began running for the exit, and we followed them outside.

They had arrived on a motorcycle with a sidecar. Penny got into the sidecar, and Yang and Ruby sat down together on the motorcycle. Before they could drive away, Sun and Blake followed by an Atlesian paladin speed down main the street running down the side of the club. Yang revved her bike and speed after them.

"Can one you take that thing down. We do not want to let it get out on the highway." I asked Copper and Ciel.

"Yes." Ciel answered and brought up another auto injector. She lifted up her skirt and inserted it into her tight. Glowing veins grew out of the insertion hole and as they grew, her hair began standing up, which told of the amount of energy manifesting in the girl. Ciel gathered the power in her arms, and after focusing her power for a short while, she brought her arms forward.

The first couple of seconds nothing happened. Copper was about to say something stupid, but his remark was stopped by a massive lightning bolt exploding out of Ciel. It instantly hit the Atlesian mech, which collapsed after its dust computing had been blown out. Ciel staggered and fainted. Before she hit the ground, I grabbed her and slowly lowered her down on the street.

I ordered Copper to stay and watch over her, and ran towards the downed paladin. The ones one the bike and the ones being chased had already gathered around the Paladin when the hatch to the pilot's compartment flew open. Roman Torchwick stepped out, a little singed from his meeting with Ciel's lightning. He raised up his hands in surrender to the group of hunters in training surrounding him. Blake moved up to restrain him, but as she closed he swung his cane around, and fired high explosive shots at everyone in the vicinity. They were blown back, and the ice-cream colored girl from my first encounter with the White Fang jumped in to help her leader.

I sprinted past my allies and slammed into Torchwick before his ally could pull any of her teleporting shit. However, as I smashed into Torchwick I felt the world around me warp and change color. I was suddenly in a bullhead, and I felt the engines readying up for flight. I smashed my face into Romans and rolled away from where I knew ice cream girl was standing before the door to cockpit. Inside the cockpit I saw the side of a black haired woman. Down her sleeve, I could see there was an intricate pattern reminiscing of the pattern on Copper, just not as feral and strong.

"Roman, what have…" Before the black haired woman could finish speaking, I fired at her and the ice cream girl with my rifle. My bullets did little to the two women, but I hit my intended target that was the control stick. The black haired woman lost control of the bullhead and it began spiraling downwards. The ice cream colored girl attacked me with a fast kick. I changed my rifle into a sword and took a defensive stance. Her kicks were now met with steel, so she drew her rapier from the inside of her parasol and engaged me in sword combat.

Roman began recovering from my head-butt. I had to do something drastic to turn this situation. Therefore I charged the ice-cream colored girl. She jumped over my attack and delivered a stab to my side. Unfazed by the pain I collided with Roman and sent him flying out of the open bullhead door. I positioned Roman below me as we fell towards the ground, hoping that this would decrease the damage to me.

The impact with the ground brought with it the sweet embrace of darkness, as my body gave up its consciousness.

 **AN: To my recent reviewer. Thank you for your feedback, your concern has been noted and I have taken steps to avoid making this seem like one of "those stories."**


	11. Mountain Glenn

I woke up in the infirmary of the ship. My head felt like someone had tightened my helmet too far, but other than that, my aura had taken care of all of the damage I received in the fall. I looked around the room and found Copper sitting beside my bed. He was sleeping, and I almost considered not waking him. He looked peaceful as he laid there. He did not need to worry about keeping his fire in check.

However, I needed to get moving, I could not waste my time in the infirmary. Copper was woken by my movement. He moved to stop me as I raised myself up from the bed. "What is the time?" I asked as I got up from the bed. I was dressed in a hospital gown, my clothes draped over the chair Copper was sitting on. "It is around 1500 hundred hours sir." He answered after looking at his scroll. "Sir, you are in no position to be up and moving."

"We have no time to waste. As we speak the White Fang are running from Mountain Glenn." I answered as I pulled of the hospital gown and put on my black and blue attire we had bought in Vale. I opened the door out of the infirmary and powered through the ship. I quickly made my way to the General's office.

The door was closed, and as I moved up to knock on it I heard the voice of Ozpin erupting inside. "His actions yesterday once again proves it. He is too much like his grandfather." I stopped, were they talking about me? "He has proven his worth," General Ironwood answered. "You don't even know that he is related to Commander Early! As far as we know, Commander Early never had any children!"

I tried to force my hand onwards to knock on the door. But the mention of the name Early stopped me short.

"Last time the name Early stalked the lands of Remnant it represented the ideal Mantel." Ozpin answered. "It frightens me James, our current enemies are stronger than ever, we can't afford to be split at a time like this."

"He will help us win this war!" The General answered. "You said it yourself, Salem and her ilk are stronger than ever, we need someone with his skills again, something Corporal Early has proven he has."

"It smells fishy." Ozpin said as he refocused the conversation. "Nearly eighty years ago the commander left us without leaving a single heir, and now in an orphanage the of the Atlesian army a soldier has emerged sporting the same name as the deceased commander."

"If it can put you at ease I will contact the leader of the orphanage, maybe he can shed some light on the family relation of the Corporal."

"Thank you James. Now if you will excuse me, I have a festival to organize."

I stepped away from the door and let it open outwards into the hall. Ozpin stopped in his tracks when he saw me, but quickly shook it off and moved towards the exit of the ship. General Ironwood noticed me from his position at his table and motioned me inside.

"I reckon that you heard our conversation?" He asked me as I entered his office.

"Only the last part Sir." I answered.

"Do you have anything against me looking into your family?" He asked me.

"No sir, as a matter of fact, I would be delighted if you do, I know very little of my family."

"Very well." He answered as he pressed a couple of buttons on his terminal. "Now, what happened at the nightclub?"

I answered his question carefully, laying out every detail I noticed during our interrogation and the capture of Roman Torchwick.

"Great job soldier, we have been searching for Roman since he first appeared." The general said as an ending comment to my report. "Now Corporal, we know the area where the White Fang are holed up, how would you go about finding the base?"

"Sir I do not think I am qualified to make tactical decisions like that." I said.

"I have confidence in your abilities."

I began laying out a plan for the operation. "I would firstly get some maps of the area. Then I would mark out likely locations for their hideout. A commando squad would check out these locations and if they find the White Fang hideout they will call in the rest of the force and we will attack the hideout."

"Is your team ready for deployment?"

"I just got out of the infirmary, I have not had the time to check up on my team."

"Do so, and I will try to get some maps of Mountain Glenn." He dismissed me however I ignored his command.

"Sir, I am overstepping my position, but please tell me more of Bufford Early."

"The only thing I can tell you with your current security clearance is that he was the head of Armed Recon Mantel before it became Special Operatives."

I answered his words with a quick salute and left his office to find my team.

* * *

Penny was sitting in her bed with her scroll quietly reading the latest news. On the bunk above her Ciel slept of her dust hangover, she looked rather peaceful as she slept, showing more feelings than she would ever have done awake. While sleeping she probably did not need to worry about keeping her feelings in check. I sat down on my bunk. "Where is Copper?" I asked the robot.

"I do not know," Penny answered without putting down her scroll. "He has not returned."

As she answered the door to the sleeping hall opened and Copper walked in. He had taken a shower, revealed by his wet hair.

I gathered my team, Ciel woke up and groaned in pain. "Ciel when are you ready to move?" I asked as she raised herself up from her bunk.

"I will probably be ready tomorrow," She answered.

"Great, we have a new mission," I said as I began laying out the plan, "we know where the White Fang are hiding. The General is working on getting the us maps of Mountain Glenn so we do not go in blind."

"What about team RWBY," Penny asked, "They are also looking for the White Fang."

"The General wants this mission to be strictly military, we go in first to find the hideout and then we call in the support of the platoon on the ship."

"Yes Sir." Penny answered disappointedly.

Before I could continue a soldier walked in holding a folder containing the maps of Mountain Glenn. I grabbed the folder and scattered the pages among my team. "Mark any place you could imagine a White Fang base. Look for derelict warehouses, railways, anything that could give reason for a base to be there."

Copper browsed through his selection of papers, "What does 'level 1 mean?" He asked and brought attention to a set of numbers on his page.

"Two second," I said and looked at the first page of the file containing the introduction. After a quick read I found the answer. "Mountain Glenn is partly under the ground, due to trouble with Grimm the city moved down into caves below the city." I read from the paper. "However during building they dug into caves containing Grimm and they were forced to abandon the entire expansion."

When we finished looking through the maps we ended up with three locations, a warehouse in the outskirts, a train station in the lower city and a parking garage in the center of town.

"Great job guys, we are checking these locations out tomorrow." I said as I gathered the maps again. "We start in the edge of the expansion and move inwards towards the center."

"Understood Sir." It sounded from my team, where after we retired to our bunks.

* * *

I stood in the door of the dropship, looking over Mountain Glenn as it closed. It was a wasteland of concrete husk that stood as a monument to the ever growing threat of Grimm. We would land in some distance away from our first location in order not to alert the White Fang.

As we touched down I strapped on a backpack. The General had provided us with recon equipment. The equipment had been standard since the faunus revolution and was stocked with things intent on helping the user find hidden encampments. It contained the basic camping equipment like a tent, a sleeping bag and binoculars, but what took up most of the space in the bag was the homing beacon. The huge metal contraption that was used to call support in when a scout had found an enemy base. It broadcasted a strong signal so that an Atlesian ship could pick it up without needing to relay the signal through the CCT network. This came at a cost of transportability and battery life.

The warehouse revealed little activity as we closed in on it after being dropped down some distance away from it. With a hand movement I sent Penny up the side of the building. She used her blades as grappling hooks and easily scaled the walls of the warehouse.

After short while Penny dropped down. "It's empty." She said, her voice breaking the eerie silence that had surrounded us since we entered Mountain Glenn.

"Damn it," Copper exclaimed.

"We have only just started," I said as I brought up the map. "This way."

Our travels through Mountain Glenn went by rather uneventful. We traversed the concrete graveyard slowly, avoiding the open streets running directly through the expansion.

After what seemed like forever we finally made I to the second location. The parking garage dominated the surroundings, standing far above anything around it. As we closed I saw no sentries, and I already suspected that we would find another target empty. Before we moved closer to the building I stopped my team with a closed fist. A pair of White Fang ground walked towards the entrance to the parking garage.

My team did not utter a single sound as we watched them enter the parking garage. We continued forward, but as we looked into the ground floor of the garage they had disappeared from sight. I sent Penny up to look inside the upper floors of the garage, the operation continuing in silence.

Penny dropped down from the side of the garage, reporting with shake of her head that the garage was empty. I brought up the maps once more, where did the White Fang grunts disappear to?

A notation on the map revealed their location, a back door in the garage acted as an entrance to the underground caverns. My team looked at me in intense expectation.

"We need to find a different entrance. They probably have their main entrance guarded." I said and searched the map for another way down.

The map lead us to an back ally, but as we entered it we saw an Ursa sleeping before the entrance to the caves. Judging by the claw marks on the concrete walls in the sides this was its lair.

With a quick movement of my hand I ordered my team forward to dispatch the Grimm. Flames sprung from Copper's arms and Ciel readied a barrage of lightning. Copper sprinted forward, intent on catching it off guard. The beat of his shoes against the pavement waked the sleeping Grimm, but as it got up on its forepaws to deliver a crushing blow to Copper, Ciel launched her lightning at the monster.

The impact stunned the Grimm, allowing Copper time to move in and deliver a crushing blow to the center of its bone mask. The Ursa staggered and Penny sent forward her swords to pin it to the side of the building. This allowed Copper free reign of the humongous Grimm and he sent his flames coursing through the Ursa, reducing it to ashes and blackening its bone.

The Ursa died in a roar of pain and we quickly entered the caves to avoid eventual Grimm called to the location.

The caves were enormous, concrete husks of buildings dominated the caverns just like they had done on the surface. We entered the cavern on top of one of these concrete buildings.

"You could gather an army in here." I said as I took out a pair of binoculars from the recon pack.

I noticed the train tracks in the distance. With a compass and comparing it to the map I found that the tracks ran towards Vale city.

"Where do those tracks end?" Copper asked.

"They…" I started and looked down on the map. After some quick wondering I flipped over to the front page of the report. I skimmed the page and found the answer. "They run directly into the center of Vale!"

"Oh shit, thank god we came in time! They have a highway directly into the city!" Copper exclaimed.

"I cannot imagine the White Fang having enough manpower to do major damage before huntsmen arrive and put an end to their antics." Ciel added.

"No matter we are putting a stop to whatever they are planning." I said.

We moved through the underground city by Penny shooting out her wires and us zip-lining on them between the buildings. After some time traveling through the underground we made our way to the train station we had marked.

An armored train stood before a tunnel into the wall, the front of it was prepared like a bulldozer. White Fang grunts were loading the train with Atlesian bombs and Atlesian Paladins. A huge faunus carrying a chainsaw seemed to be directing the operation.

As I watched he was joined by two young people. One was tall, pale, had grey hair and was clad in a grey and black jacket, on his arms he had metal plating and he revealed no visible weapons. Together with him there was a girl with brown skin and green hair, she only wore a green and white bra, emphasizing her slender build. Her weapons were two pistols strapped to her back.

"Seems like we have some new faces down there," I said as I took a picture of them through the binoculars. "Copper set up a perimeter, I am calling in some support."

I placed the backpack down on the ground. After some fiddling with the buttons I managed to turn on the transmitter and connect my phone.

"We have a location." I compared our location to the maps. "Quadrant 4E, blow a hole in the intersection of the main road towards Vale and 34th street."

"Understood Sir." The soldier on the other side answered. "We'll be there in twenty minutes."

We moved down from the apartment building and sneaked closer to the train. Penny kept an eye out for sentries and dispatched the ones she saw by using her wires to strangle them. We managed to get in position in an apartment close to the train station. The young pair seems to have left, however the officer was still present. We had come close enough to hear him speak. "The humans have assured me that Roman's capture has not compromised our location." He bellowed.

I smiled as I looked down on the clock on my scroll, Roman's capture may have not but your friends forgot to tell you a small detail.

An explosion rocked the caverns, right above the train stones fell down and crushed any faunus caught in their way. I opened fire at the officer, taking a good chunk of his aura and forcing him to run for cover. Ciel sent out a torrent of lightning, decimating groups of grunts. Copper and Penny jumped down from the apartment as they served better at close range.

White Fang personnel began flooding out of the train. However, the battlefield was quickly equalized as cutting edge Atlesian knights were dropped from the hole in the roof of the cavern, their control and precision easily dismantling the rabble that was the White Fang and denying them access to the paladins stored on the train.

Caught unaware and clearly not ready for the attack, pockets of White Fang grunts quickly surrendered to the attack, ensuring our victory even before the Atlesian soldiers descended into the caverns.

The hole created was not big enough for a dropship to enter through so the soldiers made their way down into the caverns through the parking garage. The General spearheaded the soldiers, he arrived shortly before Copper and Penny attacked the last group of faunus terrorists. The officer had gathered his elite and had barricaded himself inside the locomotive and they had begun preparing the locomotive to run away into Vale. Copper stopped this idea by sending a ball of blue fire at the train engine.

The explosion rocked the cavern prompting even more rocks to fall from the roof of the cavern. General Ironwood stepped forward to the crumpled locomotive. "Banesaw! We have you surrounded, surrender!" He bellowed at the last pocket of resistance.

"I will never surrender to humans, let us leave and I will spare your pesky troops." The angry voice of the lieutenant sounded from the wreckage.

The General looked up at me and made a quick motion towards the locomotive with his hand. I relayed his order to Ciel and she sent forward a bolt of lightning at the locomotive.

As the bolt struck, Copper charged forward to put down the Faunus resistance. I began descending down from my vantage point to meet up with the General as flames erupted from the locomotive.

Copper emerged a little singed, holding the White Fang Lieutenant by the scruff whom he threw down in front of the general, presenting his catch.

"Great job soldier." General Ironwood said, "CCCP has proven themselves once more."

"Sir, I have reason to believe that we have not found the head of the snake yet." I said as I neared the General.

"Why is that Corporal?" He said as he turned towards me, leaving the other soldiers to restrain the faunus.

"Before our attack two young ones talked to the lieutenant, and we have not uncovered the ones who I saw in the bullhead."

"Correct, I will take care of the interrogation of the White Fang, but do not expect much, the White Fang has always been fiercely loyal to their cause."

I returned a quick salute and left the General to survey the state of my team. Ciel had joined us from the apartment while I was talking to the General, Penny was messing around with one of the paladins on the train and Copper was assisting the soldiers in finding the last of faunus resistance.

"What now sir?" Ciel asked me.

"I want to look into the camp," I answered, as I began pacing towards the buildings that had contained the faunus soldiers.

The lower floor of the apartment was filled with bunks stacked so close that they reminded me of a morgue. The space between them a little less than my forearm.

"I wonder how they can accept these conditions considering they are fighting for the rights of their race." Ciel said as she tried to get inside on of the small alcoves.

"Depending on where they are from I cannot imagine them ever having experienced better." I answered as I moved between the rows, looking between the bunks for any personal effects. As I walked past one of the bunks in the back of the room I saw a small teddy bear. I pulled it out and examined it closer. It was patched together by numerus patches of clothing and the eyes were two cross stiches. I took the bear with me as I made my way to the second floor. Here I found what I was really searching for, the officers quarter.

The quarters consisted of a couple of rooms with individual beds. Two of the rooms were completely empty, while the others had clearly been in use. The one I assumed was Roman's had everything I imagined the extravagant thief would want. A king sized bed dominated the center of the room, and a huge wardrobe and mirror testified to the vanity of the criminal. I searched the makeup desk before the mirror but found nothing, not even makeup telling me that someone had cleared the room.

After looking below the bed I moved into the last quarter. This one looked like it had been in use recently, the bed was a mess and the desk was covered in weapon parts. Hidden among the weapons there was an unfinished letter. I picked up the paper, and a picture dropped down on the floor from it.

"Everything is going according to plan," I read of the letter, written in a gentle hand, "The humans have supplied the weapons and the paladins, upholding their end of the bargain." I quickly skimmed the inventory list, I would have to double check the amount however nothing was not something we had already seen in during our assault.

I continued to read the letter. "We have found your former girlfriend. She has joined a team at Beacon, I have attached a picture of her." I bowed down to the picture, revealing Blake running away from the paladin we took down after our visit to the night club.

Before I could put away the picture I heard movement behind me. I quickly turned and managed to redirect a shiv pointed at my neck. A female dog faunus had climbed out from under the bed and was trying to take my life. I delivered a kick to her face, pushing her away from me and giving me time to get up from my kneeling positon. In one smooth motion I delivered a crushing blow to the face of the faunus, sprawling her out on the floor.

I grabbed the picture and the letter before she could create any form of coherent thought from her rattled brain. The faunus managed to get a short sound of protest of as I restrained her and dragged her out of the building. The soldiers were locking the faunus together as I stepped out of the building. After delivering her to the soldiers I walked over to Copper whom had returned from assisting the soldiers and was drinking a bottle of water.

"Anything of interest?" He asked me after downing his bottle of water.

"A faunus tried to kill me with a shiv, and I found some intel on the leader of the White Fang." I deadpanned.

"So a pretty normal day," He answered in a similar tone.

I grinned at his apathy, and as we stood there waiting for the rest of the team to gather. Ciel quickly joined us as she had surveyed the camp, finding nothing of importance. Penny and the General arrived last, they had apparently cannibalized some of the paladins acquired by the White Fang and were carrying a shoulder mounted rocket launchers.

"Penny? Why do we need a rocket launcher?" I asked her.

"Ruby said she wanted one!" She answered and patted it on the side.

"Are we really giving out military tech for free?"

"The rocket launchers on these things are not a protected secret, what makes the paladin unique is the control system." General Ironwood answered. "Designed by Polendina himself it helps the user by taking care of all the minor actions."

"My dad is the best." Penny said, beaming as General Ironwood told of the scientist's achievements.

We left the caverns, the soldiers escorted the chained up faunus to through the entrance in the parking garage. Where transport planes belonging to Vale police department transported them into the city. The police chief had arrived with them and he was fuming with anger. He walked up to the General as soon as he emerged from the parking garage.

"I will not allow some Atlesian General to come to Vale and play world police." He yelled into the face of the General. "You have no jurisdiction here."

The General began walking towards the Atlesian warship as he answered the Chief. "This was a mission concerning the safety of all of Remnant, and you will compromise that safety if you continue to interfere."

"Ozpin will hear of this." The Chief answered angrily.

"Tell him that this was a mission well done." The General answered as we stepped with him into the warship, leaving the police chief.

The Atlesian knights had emerged from the caves and attached themselves to their holsters on the underbelly of the ship while the high priority prisoners were transported into the on ship brig. Among those were Lieutenant Banesaw and surprisingly the faunus that had tried to stab me.

My team retired to our sleeping quarters, everyone exhausted after a day in the field. Penny grabbed her scroll to send a message to Ruby of he, while I used my scroll to compile a file on the red hooded girl's team.

"Penny, what can you tell me about Ruby?" I asked the robot.

"She is 15 years old, hails from Patch, and she is the sister of Yang." She answered immediately, "Why do you ask sir?"

"Your friends seem very little like normal students, and I think getting to know more about them will be beneficial for our team since we will be facing them in the tournament."

"Sir they are my friends!" she pleaded. "Why do we have to treat them like enemies?"

"Not enemies, competitors, the Vytal tournament is a place for the best of the best, not preparing appropriately is an offence against their skill."

She conceded and began explaining their team dynamics. Everything from their favorite food to their team attacks. I noted everything down, ensuring that we would always be a steep ahead if we ever faced team RWBY.

After completing a file on each person in team RWBY I stashed my scroll and went to bed, ending our day.


	12. Good Cop Bad Cop

**Due to a combined assault by Witcher 3 and exams, my time has suffered significant casualties. Luckily it is over and I will be able to dedicate more time to my writing.**

"We will be doing some interrogation today." The General said, as he pulled down a screen hanging from the celling of his office, displaying a picture of the dog faunus from yesterday. "Our subject is the dog faunus who attacked you yesterday. We were able to identify her as a former servant, which means that she is probably more susceptible to interrogation than those who have endured the rigors of the dust quarries."

"Why would she know anything of the White Fang's plans?" I asked.

"I believe her to be the one who has written the letters you found. Now, what do you know about interrogation?"

"Nothing more than my experience with Junior."

"I was thinking something subtler. We will be doing a good cop/bad cop interrogation. Your job is to appear hostile towards the faunus while I will appear supportive."

"So I will be scaring her into doing what you want?"

"Yes, exactly." He answered,

I sat down besides the General and slouched backwards in the chair, looking up into the celling. A plan had already formed on how I would take care of the faunus.

The faunus was brought in, she was escorted by two soldiers, revealed by the beating of the boots against the metal flooring.

"Anything I can do to make you more comfortable?" General Ironwood asked the faunus as the soldiers left.

With a groan I sat up straight in my chair and looked directly at the faunus. "Why do we care what a faunus wants, just throw her into the mine like the others."

Her ears were laying down flat on her black hair and her eyes darted between the General and I. She was wearing a White Fang uniform, but stripped of the mask and hood

"You are the one who tried to stab me." I said when I looked down at her.

Before the General could get a word in I continued. "General, please let me have this one." I got up from my positon at the desk walking over to the seated faunus and pining her to the chair. I inhaled the smell surrounding her, detecting a faint trace of sweat. "We have some business to finish."

"Corporal, believe she could provide us with ample information if we threat her with respect." The General said.

I moved away from the faunus, and positioned myself behind her.

"Let us try again," The General restarted the conversation, "anything I can do to make you more comfortable?"

The faunus seemed a little apprehensive, shaking as she stammered forth her answer. "Did…Did you find a teddy bear when you searched the camp?"

The General pushed a pair of buttons on his screen. "Do you want us to bring it to you?"

"Yes!" She exclaimed, her ears popping up.

"I will have it brought up," The General answered.

Before they could continue I grabbed the ears of the faunus, tightening my grip as I felt the faunus tense up.

The General played along with my attack, "Keep yourself in check, at least until we finish here Corporal." I took my hand of the faunus, the ears immediately dropping down again.

"Let us start easy." General Ironwood started, "Tell me a little about yourself."

"My name is Ebony…" She started, and began telling us about herself

The General quickly jotted down her details on his desktop scroll. She told us that she was 16 years old, and that she had worked at the Schnee household before she was fired. She had been given the reason that youngest child had grown up, and that she was no longer needed, but she believed it was because of the increased aggressiveness of the White Fang.

"Why did you join the White Fang?" The General asked her as she finished.

"I had no other choice, the White Fang provides shelter and food, without them I would have been forced to live on the street."

"What can you tell me about this girl?" The General held up a picture of Blake.

"She is the former girlfriend of Adam, the leader of the White Fang. She left shortly after I joined."

"And your partnership with Roman and his associates?"

"Nearly immediately after Blake left, and Roman is in no way the leader."

"Oh, how so?"

The faunus immediately realized her mistake, her hands flying up to cover her mouth.

We were interrupted by a knock on the door, before the General could continue with the interrogation. I opened the door revealing a blue marked soldier holding a transparent zip lock bag containing the teddy bear. I grabbed the bag, dismissed the soldier, and threw the teddy bear to Ebony. She immediately perked up as she hugged the bear. I sat down again besides the General, eager to continue the interrogation.

"Now to continue, who is the leader of your mission?" The General continued.

"I won't tell you anything!" Ebony answered.

"Argh, we aren't getting anywhere." I said and got up. As I raised myself up I grabbed a pair of handcuffs from the table, moving to restrain the faunus.

Before I could lay a hand on the faunus she protested, "Cinder, she has black hair and fight by using fire from dust infused into her clothes."

The General leaned backwards into his chair, he had apparently recognized the name.

"She had any companions?" He asked.

"A grey haired guy and a green haired girl."

"Any idea where from she got the paladins and the bombs?"

"No."

"Any idea of the next step in the plan?"

"We had a shipment from Haven arrive, her two companions picked it up just before you arrived."

"Thank you miss, Corporal escort her to the brig." The General ordered. I moved up behind the faunus, restrained her with the cuffs and hoisted her to a standing position. I grabbed the bear, her eyes immediately filling with fear.

Before I could leave the interrogation room the General stopped us. "Ebony, you have just saved lives." He said as he gave a nod and a smile to the faunus girl.

The faunus lightened up a little, and did not resist as I guided her through the ship. I opened the door into the cell and threw the bear into a corner. I unlocked her restraints, and pushed her the inside the cell, and as I smashed close the cell door I smirked in her direction.

My next destination was the General's office. After a quick knock on the door I was welcomed in. The General was talking to someone on his desktop scroll.

"We know that Cinder is planning on attacking the Vytal tournament. We need more soldiers here." He said, trying to convince the one on the other side of the call.

"An army is a symbol of conflict, not something we want to display at a tournament celebrating unity." The scroll answered, the voice belonging to Ozpin.

"I have a suggestion," I said, breaking into the conversation, "We have a base of operation with train track leading directly into the city, just transport a couple of regiments there and we have ensured the safety of the tournament. The population does not need to know anything."

The General was silent for a moment as he considered my proposition. Before he could answer Ozpin interrupted. "That is even worse, imagine the public backlash if it is discovered."

"If something goes wrong we can easily justify the base, and if nothing goes wrong we leave without anyone noticing that we were there." I retorted.

"We will need to repair the train, but I think that this is the preferable solution." General Ironwood concluded.

"Pleas reconsider James, we do not need your army here in Vale." Ozpin pleaded.

"The Vytal tournament is, as you said, a symbol of unity, this, combined with the amount of people visiting, makes it a great target for terrorist like Cinder. We need my army, the White Fang base an example why."

The General closed the call without giving Ozpin time to answer, "Why are you answering to the Headmaster?" I asked. "Why should we consider what the leader of some school wants?"

"He is no normal headmaster," the General sighed deeply, "I hope to tell you why, but I need his permission."

"No offence, but I am slightly worried about the amount of information I am not getting," I sat down in front of the General's desk. "Firstly Ozpin seems to dislike me because I have the same last name as some man from the great war, then when I ask you about him I am stopped by my low rank. And now you cannot tell me about your relationship with Ozpin. I am concerned that this will impact our chances of success."

"I know, if it is to any help I have received the logs for the day you were delivered to the orphanage." He pressed some buttons on his scroll, "Do you want to hear it?"

I nodded and he began reading from the file. "A child was found on the doorsteps of the orphanage. The age was estimated to below one year. The child is bald, not a single speck of hair on its body, and has blue eyes. A note was found on the child naming it Cobalt Early. The child was covered in Mantle's old flag, and we believe the child was placed before the door during the night."

"That does not reveal much." I said as he finished reading the report.

"It reveals that your family has some past in the empire of Mantle."

"So nothing speaking to my advantage."

"This only gives more ground to his suspicions."

"So no chance he will lift my ban," I stated.

"Very true," He got up from his chair. "I will try to get you approved for more information, both at the Special Operatives and Ozpin, you on the other hand have a new mission."

He pulled a screen down from the roof, after a short flicker it sprung to life, displaying the blueprint of a CCT tower.

"You are to guard the Vale CCT tower. Due to the recent dust robberies we have been forced to draw personnel from the CCT tower and deploying them elsewhere in the city. This would not be a problem normally, since any trouble at the tower will be quickly detected by the students, but Beacon has arranged a party for the students participating in the tournament."

He brought up a map of Beacon's campus, "This means that the entirety of the student body will be concentrated in this part of the academy," he pointed at a hall quite far away from the CCT tower, "Leaving the rest of campus deserted. Questions?"

"What about our ban from campus?"

"I will try to convince Ozpin to soften it, he is not a stupid man and he usually listens to logic."

"Usually."

"Sometimes he can be quite emotional, you have experienced that yourself."

I left the General in his office and moved back to my team. As I entered the sleeping hall I saw Copper and Ciel meditating. None of them had manifested their dust powers, but both were engulfed in a serene aura, their breathing in tune. I sat down into my bed and began researching the other teams participating in the Vytal tournament. Now, how would I go about using Nora's addiction to pancakes in an official match?


	13. Dance Dance Confrontation

I sat at the entrance desk of the CCT tower. In front of me I had a book containing the notes on our opponents at the Vytal tournament, the same ones who right now were partying the night away.

The CCT tower foyer was a sparsely furnished room. Two doors connected the room to the outside, and in the middle of the wall, opposite of the entrance, a corridor continued further into the building. On both sides of the corridor there were two counters to accept people making long range calls. Ciel and I occupied one of the counters. The counter was outfitted with a desktop scroll, which was connected to the surveillance system of the tower. We had been outfitted with handheld radios, curtesy of the General.

Ciel had just left me to go to the toilet, while Copper was standing guard in the computer room. I saw him through the surveillance cameras. He was meditating in the center, the light from his flame covering the monitors around him in a bluish glow. Penny on the other hand I could not see on the cameras. According to our plan, she would right now be on the outside of the building, surveying the approach to the tower.

Ciel came back from the toilet and we returned to planning strategies against our opponents in the Vytal tournament.

Just as we were finishing up team JNPR from Beacon academy, we were interrupted by Penny's voice blurting out of the radio.

"Three figures approaching from the academy,"

"Do not engage, but stay on your toes," I answered.

"Staying on my toes will impede my balance..." Before she could continue debunking the figure of speech I muted the radio. "Ciel, I want you to ambush them if I can't talk them into leaving."

She acknowledged my order and further back the corridor to the central room of the tower, hiding just on the other side of the corner.

I spied the three figures as they sneaked closer to the entrance, they jumped from cover to cover in a faint attempt to be sneaky. Due to their speed I could not get a good look at them.

I readied my weapon in its sword form below the counter, and as the door opened I bellowed at the intruders. "Excuse me, no one's allowed in this area."

Without answering one of the intruders dashed forward, he had grey hair, and was, like the others, wearing a skin tight black combat suit and a mask. He attacked with a flying kick, and I only managed to block because I had already readied my defense. Using my sword as a springboard, he laid a little distance between us.

Ciel was alerted by the weirdly metallic clashing that emanated from our block and sent forward a torrent of electricity down the passage. This gave me a window to press the alarm button located below the counter.

As soon as the button was down the alarms went off. I grinned at the grey haired one, but as I did he sprang into action with a kick to my side. Again I managed to block it, and we delved into the fight.

Every kick delivered from my opponent were enchanted with bullets, creating an explosion every time his attacks met my blocks. His relentless attacks forced me on the defensive, every attack he made meet with the edge of my blade. But as the fight continued he slowly gained the advantage. With a kick into the ground he sent himself flying above me, and continued his attack with a downwards kick to my back. I used the force of the kick in a forward roll. As I rolled I felt like I was shortly blasted with cold water.

I quickly got up in a standing position and readied my sword to block the continued attacks of the grey haired. But instead I saw him running towards his green haired companion, who was sitting at the elevator to the top of the tower. The black haired one also disengaged with her fight with, but unlike me Ciel was distracted, shooting bolts lightning at invisible enemies.

I shot at the fleeing intruders, the grey haired on staggered as my bullets hit him in the back.

"Em! What the fuck?" He yelled.

"I don't know! He should still be deceived" The green haired intruder answered.

"Shut up both of you." The black haired intruder broke in, while throwing fire balls at me, forcing me to take cover on the side of the corridor. "We will discuss your failure back at the base, just get in the elevator."

"Ciel, snap out of it!" I yelled at the lightning infused as the intruders entered the elevator. I suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion flow over me. Green energy dissipated from around Ciel, and she stared confused at a point before her

"The elevator!" I yelled. Ciel reacted immediately and turned towards it, she fired out a bolt of lightning, but the door managed to close before it made contact.

I grabbed the radio and yelled into the transceiver. "They have breached the first line," I reported to Copper, "You only need to hold them off, Penny get down from the room and join Copper in the main communications room."

"Yes sir," They answered in unison, the sound of a wheezing flame accompanied Copper's answer, almost drowning out their response.

Again I muted the call, Ciel had closed in on the elevator and tried to call it down again. "They have destroyed the terminal on this side, we will not be able to call it down."

"The stairs, quickly." I ordered.

We were about halfway up the stairs when I saw cars from Vale police beginning to converge on the building. However, my view was suddenly blocked by a hot mass of molten glass that barreled towards the ground. The area around the tower was lit up like the day with light emanating from the top of the tower.

The computer room at the top of the tower was devastated. On one side the grey haired going blow for blow with Penny, a testament to his skill. On the other side there was an inferno of flames, the black haired intruder's clothes covered in intricate patterns of fire dust. Patches of her clothes were burned off, and she had embers in her hair. Copper was, unlike her, not damaged at all.

The two fire users fought by sending out balls of flames against each other, Copper sent out balls of pure blue against the woman. The pure flames burning a lot hotter than anything she could handle. On the other hand, her attacks were brushed off like water, none of them sticking to Copper as he slowly paced towards her through the inferno that was the computer room. Instead of continuing this futile test of wills, the woman manifested two swords from her fire. Copper accepted her invitation and drew his own sword.

As I entered, I felt like being soaked in cold water, and suddenly the green haired one appeared in the center of the room together with the main computer. The air around her was alive with her green aura.

I opened fire against her, she dogged, but the computer was demolished by my bullets and the green aura dissipated.

Noticing that they were at a disadvantage the intruders disengaged from their fights. The grey haired one used both of his feet to propel himself away from Penny and delivered a kick into the side of Copper, giving the black haired on time to retreat. They gathered by one of the broken windows where fire user created a bow like she had done her sword, with it she shot forth an arrow with a rope tied to it.

After attaching the rope to the tower, they proceeded to zip-line down the rope, their dark clad forms immediately becoming hard to see on the background of dark night.

We followed them down the zip-line, but as we were gliding towards the line went slack. One of the intruders had cut the line, making us barrel towards the ground.

The police on leveled their guns at us as we smashed into the ground, but were stopped by General Ironwood. "Don't, they are with us."

I nodded towards the General and set of in a sprint towards the place where the intruders had landed. The others from my squad following closely behind me.

As I closed, I saw their forms disappear into the academy. I continued following them through the ancient corridors of the academy. As I ran I heard music coming from the party which made me speed up further, I could not let them involve the students, Ozpin would have my hide!

I saw them enter a corridor leading directly to the dance party. The corridor was completely empty when I smashed the door open, the only thing revealing anyone had been there was the door in the opposite end closing, the crack between the double doors revealing the balloons and ribbons of the party. "Fuck," I sprinted the last couple of steps and smashed open the door. Instead of the panic as I had expected the party seemed to be going at a comfortable pace.

Nothing was out of place, well expect the guy in a dress, but that was no concern to the investigation. I slowly moved my eyes over the dancing students, none of them were wearing anything even resembling the black suits and mask of the intruders.

As I stood there and explored the area my team slowly caught up with me. "Monty damn that was fast," Copper managed to get out over his frantic gasping for air.

"We have lost them," I said, returning to the corridor. On the ground I found the masks of the intruders.

"We could try examining the partygoers for burns." Ciel recommended as she picked up the singed mask of the black haired intruder.

"Make it so," I said.

My team dispersed into the party, just as Penny was about to leave she was assaulted by Ruby. "Penny! You came!" She said as attacked Penny with a hug. The robot managed to remain standing, due to her car-stopping strength.

"Sorry Ruby I am here on the job, no time to lose." She said as she slowly undid the stranglehold Ruby had on her.

"Is there anything I could do to help?" Ruby asked timidly.

"As a matter of fact you can," I interrupted, "Have you seen anyone leave this corridor?" I pointed at the door behind me.

"No, sorry." She answered.

"What about anyone with burn marks, anyone come to mind?"

"No…" She looked very distraught that she had not noticed.

"It is probably that god damn illusionist." I concluded, "I need to talk to the General."

* * *

The area around the CCT tower was in lockdown. Both Vale police and the Atlesian platoon were present, dousing the fire created by the fight and cataloging the event. The General was coordinating the cleanup efforts.

"General!" I caught his attention.

"Corporal, what happened?" He asked.

"Three suspects attacked the CCT tower, they tried to gain access to the main computers."

"What happened to them? I see that you have not brought them back."

"We fought them off, however we could not catch them. They disappeared into the student body."

"Do you know what they wanted?"

"I do not know what their target was, but it had something to do with the main computer."

"I will have a computer specialist take a look at it."

The General left me, and began inspecting the interior of the tower as the rubble was cleared away. I was quickly joined by the rest of my team,

"No one we suspect seemed to have burn marks, the only ones we found where some who were burned after a being a little too intimate with a certain blonde of team RWBY" Copper reported.

"Damn it," I entered the CCT tower. Everything was like I had left it the notebook was still sprawled on the counter and the desktop scroll was still tuned to the security feed, "I believe that they are hiding in the student body," I began flipping through my notes, "I am sure that they are not in any of those I have looked through,"

I turned towards my team, "The thing is, I have only finished the easy ones. Team RWBY, team JNPR and team FNKI are all teams that we have a lot of data on since we know them. The other teams from Shade, Beacon and Haven are a lot more challenging, since the schools have done their utmost to hide both fighting style and semblances. We of course know the basics, like looks and names, but we will not get any information on them from the school."

I smashed the book against the table, "New mission soldiers, Penny, I want you to scout the scroll-net find their social media accounts, their position before they joined their hunter academy, anything." She quickly acknowledged my orders with a short salute and I moved on to Copper.

"Copper, you are visit the city and ask around. Have they gotten into fights? Hell, find out what their favorite drink is." He saluted me, but I wasn't finished, "Just remember we still have training in the morning, and if you come in with a hangover, I am sure a quick dip in the ocean will get rid of the worst." He smiled at the threat and gave a quick nod, still holding his salute.

"Our last task is for you Ciel. You will be observing the combat classes here at Beacon, try and identify any known faces, and study the fighting style of the participating students."

Ciel raised her hand to get a word in. "Sir, we are still banned from the school grounds right?"

"True, but when I was looking through the security cam channels, I found a small loophole." I lifted the screen up from the counter to face my team, "We aren't allowed to enter the academy, however:" after pushing a couple of buttons the screen displayed the Beacon battle arena which was currently devoid of any activity.

"Sadly we cannot watch recordings, so you have to be ready when they have combat classes."

"A question sir, before we go back to the ship." Ciel asked, "You did something during the attack."

"Yeah, it felt like you were doused in cold water?"

She nodded. "And the illusion I was fighting disappeared."

"Yep, it seems like I have discovered my semblance." I answered.

"Yay! I am so happy for you," Penny exclaimed, "What does it do?"

"I don't know what it does exactly, but it dispersed the illusion which the green haired one tried to cast." I said and looked up at the moon above us. ""It is time we get back to the ship, it's late, and we lot to do in the coming days."


End file.
